Norwegians Gather at the Palace as King Harald's Condition Worsens

Norwegians have been laying flowers outside the palace in Oslo after the royal household described King Harald V's condition as "extremely serious."

Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon cancelled engagements to be at his bedside at Oslo University Hospital with other family members, leaving later in the day. A palace update late on Thursday afternoon said his condition was unchanged.

The illness

The 89-year-old has been in hospital for ten days being treated for haemolytic anaemia, a rare condition in which red blood cells are destroyed faster than the body can replace them, causing fatigue and breathlessness. He has been treated with cortisone in recent weeks.

On the throne since 1991, Harald is Europe's oldest serving head of state. Crown Prince Haakon, 53, has acted as regent through his father's periods of leave — an arrangement used repeatedly in recent years as the king's health has declined.

A quieter kind of monarchy

The scene in Palace Square — crowds gathering through the day, flowers accumulating at the gates — reflects a monarchy that has kept an unusual closeness to its public. Harald is widely associated with a 2016 garden party speech on inclusion that circulated far beyond Norway.

The constitutional machinery is already in place and has been exercised. What the country is absorbing is the end of a reign that has run for more than three decades.