Norway's new king Haakon pays tribute to 'such a good dad' Harald

Oslo: King Haakon VIII of Norway paid homage to his late father as "such a good dad" in ​his first address to the nation since becoming sovereign, ​his voice briefly filling with emotion when evoking his widowed mother Queen Sonja.

King Harald, who emerged from the ​shadow of his own well-loved, extrovert father to become a reformer during more than three decades on the throne, died on Friday at the age of 89.

Also Read: King Harald V, Norway's reform-minded head of state, dies at 89


His son Haakon, dressed in a black suit, white shirt and black tie, praised Harald as a warm family man in a recorded televised speech at the palace.

"My dear father, thank you for ‌being such a good ⁠dad for ⁠Martha and I," he said, referring to his sister, Princess Martha Louise.

"I am going to miss him. I am going to miss his laughter. I am going to miss his good-natured ​way to meet people and situations," he continued, sitting behind a desk, with a portrait of a smiling Harald to his left.

He noted that Saturday should have been ​the celebration of the 58th wedding anniversary of Harald and Queen Sonja, who survives him.

"Congratulations on your wedding anniversary, dear Mummy," Haakon said, his voice appearing briefly overtaken by emotion.

ONE PEOPLE

Haakon stressed he would do things his own way, like his father did before him, and reiterated the foundations of ​Norway as a constitutional monarchy, embodied by the oath he will take in parliament on Tuesday ⁠to protect ‌the country's constitution and laws.

Also Read: Norway’s King Harald V defied royal tradition to marry the woman he loved. Here's their remarkable decades-long story

"We believe in our system of self-governance - and in democracy. We believe in a society built ​on the rule of ​law - where every individual has equal worth," he said.

Haakon automatically became king upon his father's death under Norway's constitutional ⁠monarchy. There will be no coronation as they were abolished by parliament in 1908.

"We believe ​in a Norway where there is room for everyone. We shall feel the strength of our community - ​and know deep within ourselves that we are one people," he said.

At the end of his speech, outside the palace, mourners who had been watching on their mobile phones broke into spontaneous applause.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, speaking to Reuters minutes before the broadcast of the speech, said Haakon shared many qualities with his father.

"This King has something from his father, which is the ability to create an atmosphere of togetherness," he said in an interview outside the palace.

TOLERANCE AND INCLUSIVENESS

Since Harald's passing, people have streamed in their tens of thousands to say goodbye to the late king at the royal ‌palace, where he lies in state, with many well-wishers remembering his sense of inclusiveness and tolerance.

Flags were flying at half-mast throughout the country and portraits of the late king in gala uniform could be seen at bus stops, trams and metro ​stations to shops, offices ​and public buildings.

The main avenue in central ⁠Oslo, Karl Johan, was tightly packed with people from all walks of life heading towards the palace, clutching flowers, handwritten cards, drawings and small national flags.

Mourners praised the late king's spirit of inclusiveness.

"He meant a lot to us immigrants ... We felt really very included. So, thanks to him, I feel ​so Norwegian," Veselina Vitanova, a 43-year-old teacher originally from Bulgaria, told Reuters outside the palace.

Another referred to a speech Harald delivered in 2016 that went viral worldwide, in which he said: "Norwegians are girls who love girls, boys who love boys and girls and boys who love each other".

"It embodies the way he felt about people and the way he wanted us Norwegians to feel about each other," said Mari Eidsvaag, 32, who wore a T-shirt emblazoned with that sentence, a rainbow and a drawing of King Harald.

"I think it's a very important statement, especially these days," she told Reuters.