Norway: Republic or monarchy?

[Al_bina]

Crown Princely couple has a right to choose what education and where their children should get. However, it is deemed wise to lead a usual life of a royal couple. There is no need to provoke the public outcry.

[nascarlucy]

The school issue is a non-issue. Someone made an issue of an non-issue IMO.

[LadyFinn]

Haakon in VG
Haakon: I understand that people have opinions about our choice. It has been difficult weighing the pros-and cons for us.
Q: You say it is a difficult choice - why?
Haakon: Our children have had good years at the schools they have attended, but we have nevertheless arrived at this decision, because it is for the best for the children now. We have, of course, carefully considered this.
He added that they would now focus on the schools and their programmes.
Kronprins Haakon til VG - Forstår at folk har meninger - Kongehuset - VG

VG interviewed also Ari Behn just before the opening of the art exhibition "Crossover" in Drammen Museum, where Ari Behn is one of four artists exhibiting.
Q: Do you understand the critique the CP couple has gotten?
Behn: When people have the chance to learn more about it and read more than a couple of headlines, it might be able to think a bit further and differently.
Q: What do you think of the fact that the CP couple breaks with the tradition?
Behn: I think that every generation must make their own choices.
Q: Do you think that their choices send the signal that private schools are better than the public ones?
Behn: It is a calculation you do, everyone wants what is best for their children. It is the sum that decide which type of school it becomes. It is not a critique of the public school.
Ari Behn Ingen oppskrift på hva som er rett - Kronprinsparet - VG

I just think that the main problem is that people think that the CP couple thinks that the public schools are not good enough for their children. On Behn's comments you can also think that there is more behind this decision that is told.

[wartenberg7]

Originally Posted by Al_bina

Crown Princely couple has a right to choose what education and where their children should get. However, it is deemed wise to lead a usual life of a royal couple. There is no need to provoke the public outcry.

I don´t see any kind of provokation in taking your parental right to choose a school for your own children! The crown princely couple didn´t provoke any thing. It´s a provokation to take up the right to comment on other people´s businesses!

[Al_bina]

It has been my understanding that the enlightened western monarchies live off the taxpayer funds. This means that taxpayers do have some rights to comment on stances of the royals they fund. Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette Marit seem to be fond of creating new traditions. Anyway the couple in question can rock the boat as much as they want. Excessive trailblazing can backfire even in well-to-do Norway. At the same time, subjects of the Kingdom of Norway can decide whether or not they wish to voice their disapproval.

[ROYAL NORWAY]

SV's republican deputy leader Bård Vegar Solhjell encourage the Crown Prince to hold a referendum on the monarchy when he becomes king. What a ridiculous statement, not that I care, for the monarchy will win by a large margin anyway.

– Kronprins Haakon bør la folket bestemme om han skal bli konge - TV2.no

[HereditaryPrincess]

Originally Posted by ROYAL NORWAY

I have always supported the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, but now I'm starting to get worried. Several politicians in the parliament now believe that this is the beginning of the end for the Norwegian monarchy. This may seem strange to foreigners, but in Norway we are very keen that the royal family should be like us.

Are they saying this because of the schools issue? If so, then I find the whole situation quite ridiculous. As Al_bina has said, Haakon and MM have the right to decide on which schools are best for their children, just like any other parent. I understand that the public was pleased with their previous choice of schooling for Ingrid Alexandra and Sverre Magnus, so I see why they'd be upset at the new decision. But at the end of the day, it isn't really any of their business and as nascarlucy has said, is a non-issue.

ROYAL NORWAY, I'm a foreigner to Norwegians (I come from England and have Irish ancestors) although I can understand why you would like your royal family to be like us. However in the real world, that won't fully happen since they are royal after all, and will have some privileges that Joe from next door won't be able to have; such as regalia, standing on the Palace balcony etc.

[Jacknch]

If private schools are such a big problem for Norwegians and their politicians, shouldn't they be abolished then?!
Neither the Crown princely couple nor the prime minister has any business telling anyone or announcing where their respective children will or will not go to school.

[ROYAL NORWAY]

The reason I'm starting to get worried is because Haakon and Mette Marit constantly is taking wrong decisions when it comes to media strategy, in terms of both educational journey, friendship with politicians and several other things that the media is blowing out of proportion. The King and Queen have repeatedly had to stop them from making bad decisions, in addition to keeping an eye on Martha and Ari, but as I said earlier the monarchy is very popular here. And should there ever be a referendum, I think the monarchy would win by a large margin. Here in Norway most politicians think primarily on themselves, it is not so very long ago, former Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg denied the king to hand out a major war medal from fear of being overshadowed.

[fortimo]

Critic about the CP-couple:
: - De har på få år klart å rive ned all mystikken - Se og hør
https://translate.google.hu/translat...463&edit-text=

[Blog Real]

The Kings have to control Haakon and Mette-Marit. The Princes have to be careful with what they do.

[LadyFinn]

Originally Posted by fortimo

Critic about the CP-couple:
: - De har på få år klart å rive ned all mystikken - Se og hør
https://translate.google.hu/translat...463&edit-text=

This is the whole original article which Se og Hør quotes
Kronprinsparets nye hoff GD
Translation

[fortimo]

Interesting... I thought they are more unpopular nowadays...
"Three out of ten is critical that Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit send their children to private schools. But the couple still enjoys the full confidence of the people."

Tre av ti kritisk til kronprinsparets skolevalg
https://translate.google.hu/translat...tml&edit-text=

[ROYAL NORWAY]

Einar Gelius is the priest who has been unfaithful to his wife, he is the priest who buried the football club lyn. In 2004 he called the Pope a murderer, in 2011 he was fired as a priest in the Diocese of Oslo.

Kjell Arne Totland:– Gelius bommer - TV2.no

[Duc_et_Pair]

From the start of the relationship with Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby, the princely couple has always been under an extra magnifying glass and under extra scrutiny. They had to overcome controversy, scepticism and criticism. In the case of Mette-Marit we see -exactly like what happened and happens to Letizia Ortiz in Spain- that the media are constantly looking for the smallest hiccup to tackle.

My explanation for this phenomenon is the lack of distance towards the background of both ladies. They come very close to the common Norwegian or Spaniard. Then the reaction is: Who do you think you are? Sending your kids to posh schools? Shopping designer clothes and holidaying at our expenses? Girl, you think you are "royal" but you once served me a beer in Café Engebret in Oslo. It is the phenomenon of having your head chopped off when you raise too high from the "ranks" you once belonged to.

That is my personal conviction and explanation for the often overly critical attitude towards Mette-Marit (and Letizia). No offense intended. Any other theory for this somewhat picky behaviour towards Mette-Marit is good as it gets. Just speculation.

[SLV]

But why are they treated differently then eg. Maxima or Mary. They too are commoners, but they do not seem to receive this treatment. Is it that they were not born in the country they now live in?

[Lee-Z]

Maybe the other RF's should establish a media-code too, i bet that'd help

However, from dutch P.Claus critical stories were released too, at least at the start of his marriage, and Q.Mathilde is from Belgium herself, so that is not the difference either..

[Duc_et_Pair]

Originally Posted by SLV

But why are they treated differently then eg. Maxima or Mary. They too are commoners, but they do not seem to receive this treatment. Is it that they were not born in the country they now live in?

In the book "Aan het Hof" by Remco Meijer and Jan Hoedeman is written that Queen Beatrix preferrably wanted her eldest son to have a partner "with a certain standing" and from a foreign country. The first serious relationship of the Prince of Orange (Emily Bremers) did not meet these requirements. Máxima Zorreguieta at least was "foreign".

According Meijer and Hoedeman, the Queen found it "not desirable" that someone who comes from the Netherlands itself, from a normal Dutch family, with Dutch neighbours, Dutch classmates, member of Dutch sports clubs, Dutch colleagues, in short: "with a Dutch past all over" becomes the future Queen of the Netherlands. In her opinion the distance which is, in her eyes, a "necessity" for a proper workings of a monarchy would disappear with such an alliance.

When Máxima Zorreguieta engaged with the Prince, immediately all sorts of media and correspondents went to Buenos Aires, New York and Brussels and tried to trace everything they could about her. The geographical distance, the language barrier and the fact that the lady in question was brought up "protected" (on an expensive private school) and soon left for New York made that there was little information to pick up and the focus soon became on the father with his past in the military dictatorship.

Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz was a Belgian but a lady who is raised on the Château de Losange in Villes-la-Bonne-Eau and hardly counts as a "normal" lady the Belgians can relate to. Stéphanie de Lannoy is a non-Luxembourgian and has the same background as Mathilde, being raised at the Château d'Anvaing in Hainaut. Both are clearly not the postman's daughter, so to say, and come from the "natural habitat" of the royal family.

Mary shares the same "luck" as Máxima to have her background and roots at the other side of the world. Also Alexandra and Marie are foreign, by the way.

Mette-Marit and Letizia are the exceptions here. Catherine too, but she is still in the goodwill-mode as young married couple with a lovely kid. The vitriolic British press can slash her, like they did with Sarah or even Diana during certain periods.

[melina premiere]

Prince Henrik of Denmark was very criticed at the beginning of his wedding and still now . he was not a commoner, he was the count Henrik of Montpezat before his wedding with the princess Margreth of Denmark.

[MARG]

Originally Posted by Duc_et_Pair

. . . . . It is the phenomenon of having your head chopped off when you raise too high from the "ranks" you once belonged to.

That is my personal conviction and explanation for the often overly critical attitude towards Mette-Marit (and Letizia). No offense intended. Any other theory for this somewhat picky behaviour towards Mette-Marit is good as it gets. Just speculation.

We call it "Tall Poppy Syndrome" (TPS) where anyone who achieves or in some way raises themselves up from the "normal", figuratively, get their heads chopped off.

http://www.kiwianarama.co.nz/wp-cont...y-syndrome.jpg

Originally Posted by SLV

But why are they treated differently then eg. Maxima or Mary. They too are commoners, but they do not seem to receive this treatment. Is it that they were not born in the country they now live in?

OK, first off, while both Mary and Maxima are commoners, they are also "imports" and so little is known about them and lots is specualted but essentially their backgrounds are not in the forefront.

Second, and this may just be serendipity, both their kids go to public school. Interestingly the CP royal wives of Belgium and Luxemburg were both minor aristocracy so I guess that makes them different even though one is home born and the other an "import".

Now Mette-Marit and Letizia are both home grown "commoners" and the media has their entire life stories at their fingertips. The Spanish RF sent their kids to private school and the Norwegian RF is suffering a backlash for moving thier kids from public school to private.

I think it comes down to "How the Royal Family Sees Itself". If they are pushing the "egalitarian" message they run the risk of creating a bad case TPS which ensues when they do something that isn't the same as the 'common man'. This is an issue that covers every aspect of life and, because the wives were not born royal or even aristocratic they are the ones that are under the microscope. Spending is an issue whereby if they spend to much on an ensemble they are spendthrift and if they go "high street", they are "dragging the royal family down". It is an issue that the BRF are beginning to face.

IMO royals who actively push the egalitarian message too far are making a rod for their own Monarchy. If your royals are common then what's the point of having a monarchy.