London: The Norwegian royal family has gathered at the bedside of the nation’s king after news emerged that Europe’s oldest living monarch is in a “very serious” condition in hospital.

Crowds gathered outside the royal palace in Oslo and political leaders cancelled trips outside the country to return to the capital and show respect for King Harald V, who has reigned for 35 years.

His granddaughter, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, returned to Norway in June from her university studies in Australia at a time of growing concern over the king’s health.

Harald, 89, is immensely popular with the Norwegian public despite scandals in the wider family, including one member’s conviction for rape and another’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

While support for the monarchy has declined in recent years, Harald gained a “grade” of 9.2 on a scale of 1 to 10 in a survey by Norstat for Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) in February.

His son, Crown Prince Haakon, is also popular, as is Princess Ingrid Alexandra, who is next in line to the throne.

Harald has been in hospital since August 17 and is being treated for a bloodstream bacterial infection, according to the Royal House of Norway, which said his condition deteriorated last weekend. In its most recent statement, on Thursday, the palace said his condition was unchanged.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere cancelled a ​trip to Germany because of the king’s illness.

“The whole nation is with us as we send warm thoughts to ‌the king ⁠and the rest of the royal family,” he said in a statement.

The speaker of Norway’s parliament, Masud Gharahkhani, ended an official visit to Iceland and returned to Norway. Members of the College of Bishops of the Lutheran Church of Norway also planned to return to Oslo from an official visit to Rome.

Haakon, who is acting as Regent, visited his father at Oslo University Hospital with his wife, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, and other members of the family.

Scandals have taken their toll on the family. Mette-Marit, 53, apologised in February when her friendship with Epstein was revealed in detail in emails released by the US Department of Justice.

“I was manipulated and deceived,” Mette-Marit said of her friendship with Epstein in a February television interview. She said she never saw anything illegal, but her emails showed her joking with Epstein and admitting she had Googled him, indicating she knew something of his past.

Mette-Marit underwent a double lung transplant in June after years of poor health, but the Norwegian public has turned against her over the Epstein concerns and a separate scandal with her son, Marius Borg Høiby.

Høiby, 29, is currently serving a four-year prison sentence after being found guilty in June of two counts of rape as well as assault, drug possession and other charges.

Høiby holds no royal titles because he is the son of Mette-Marit and a man she knew before her relationship with Haakon. As the stepson of the Crown Prince, however, he has been a prominent member of the family.

The concerns over the king will sharpen the questions over the future of the monarchy when the Norwegian public appears reluctant to accept Mette-Marit as queen in the event her husband ascends to the throne.

In the latest survey, the public rated Haakon as 7.9 when asked about his performance, but gave Mette-Marit a score of only 3.7.

With the family gathered in Oslo, the role of Ingrid Alexandra is seen as becoming even more important because of the workload borne by her father and the need for other members of the family to share the royal duties.

The princess moved to Australia in August last year to begin a three-year Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Sydney with a focus on international relations and political economy. A keen surfer and skier, she began the course after completing her military service in Norway.

But she cut short her time in Sydney in June this year and returned to Oslo when her mother was undergoing surgery. She is due to study at the University of Oslo for the rest of this year, on exchange from the University of Sydney, and it is not clear whether she can resume her life in Australia.

Harald’s wife of 57 years, Queen Sonja, 89, has been at the hospital to be with her husband. The couple met in 1959 but did not marry for nine years because Sonja was a commoner and their union was opposed by Harald’s father, King Olav V. The monarch relented, however, when Harald told his father that if he could not marry Sonja, he would not marry at all.

With Reuters

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