Two days of public celebrations ended with a large procession in the center of Stockholm: Sweden is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the reign of its King Carl XVI on Friday and Saturday. Gustaf.
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Under sunny skies, the monarch, dressed in a dark suit and gray tie and accompanied by Queen Silvia in a sky blue ensemble, opened Friday, a half-century day by day since his accession to the throne at the age of 27.
After a service, the royal family attended the changing of the guard and a children’s choir in front of the royal palace.
“Fifty years ago I stood here for the first time as King of Sweden,” remarked Carl XVI. Gustaf during his speech at the opening of the banquet, which was attended by Swedish intelligentsia, politicians, business leaders, Scandinavian crowned heads and religious representatives. “My feelings about the position are the same today as they were then: pride, recognition and humility.”
Photo AFP
The fact of being able to “represent a country that is a stable, united and peaceful democracy is a favor,” he said.
This lavish dinner will also be an opportunity to celebrate “Prince Daniel”, husband of Victoria – the heir to the throne – who celebrates his fiftieth birthday on the same day. A large part of the celebrations will be broadcast live by the public broadcaster SVT.
The highlight of the celebrations will be the royal procession on Saturday, surrounded by around 3,000 soldiers and sailors from the armed forces.
On this occasion, the King and Queen meet the Swedes to the fanfare of the military orchestra before boarding the royal barge “Vasaorden”.
“I was a baby when he became king, I was only three years old,” Jenny Schannong, a 53-year-old medical secretary who will travel to the parade on Saturday, told AFP.
“It will be nice to experience it in my life,” confides the one who hopes to see the royal couple. “I sit (in a wheelchair), so I usually only see the back,” she laughs.
After the procession, the city of Stockholm organizes a concert featuring several big names from the Swedish music scene before the city center turns into a huge dance floor.
Photo AFP
Longevity record
Several hundred thousand people are expected on the streets of Stockholm this weekend, points out Rebecca Landberg, police spokeswoman, comparing the event to the wedding of Princess Victoria, heir to the throne, which brought together a huge crowd in 2010.
This year’s celebrations took place under high security in a country that recently raised its terror alert level.
Carl XVI Gustaf is the longest-reigning Swedish monarch in the country’s history.
Born on April 30, 1946, Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus Bernadotte, a descendant of Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte – a French soldier who became King of Sweden in 1818 – was only nine months old when his father died in a plane crash in Denmark.
He grew up with his four older sisters and a frequently absent mother, Princess Sibylle of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and succeeded his grandfather, King Gustaf VI, on September 15, 1973. Adolf, on.
He shares the record for longevity on the throne for a sitting ruler with his cousin Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.
Despite the scandals that have targeted him – in 2010, a shocking book portrayed him as a womanizer and claimed he frequented sex clubs – Swedes are clinging to their constitutional monarchy.
According to a recent survey by the national daily Dagens Nyheter and the Ipsos Institute, 62% of respondents say they support the monarchy, a rate that has remained constant for 20 years.
The role of the king is purely ceremonial and reduced to representative functions.
This year also marks the 500th anniversary since the beginning of the reign of Gustav Vasa, who was elected King of Sweden on June 6, 1523, breaking the Kalmar Union that united the three Scandinavian kingdoms under a single monarch from 1397 to 1523.