King Harald spoke of helplessness and difficult times – and made a prayer for the climate: – I have a sincere hope that we will now be able to act in line with the seriousness of the situation.
King Harald gave his traditional New Year’s speech on New Year’s Eve.
– We human beings need to know that we can do something to make life the best it can be, both for ourselves and for the people we love.
This is how the king begins his address to the Norwegian people. He says this is especially true in turbulent times, where it’s easy to feel powerless.
Last Monday week, a few days before Christmas Eve, the king was admitted to the National Hospital.
He had then been diagnosed with an infection that needed to be treated with intravenous antibiotics.
It was stated that he would be staying at the Rikshospitalet for a few days and that his condition was stable.
The king has his doctor at the Rikshospitalet, the game of lifethe game of lifeThe life doctor is a personal life doctor for a high-ranking person. Bjorn Bendz.
It didn’t take many days before the king was dismissed, and a few days later he attended Christmas service in Holmenkollen chapel.
– Lonely in the middle of a company
In his speech, the King reminds us that Norway is a society with differences and that people live different lives.
– Many have everything they need – and more. Others struggle to keep their daily lives together and worry about the future. Some are with many people tonight, some are alone. One can feel alone even in the midst of a company. Some have lost a loved one this year and are struggling to find the way forward.
– Others have experienced the joy of becoming more numerous. Some celebrate New Year’s Eve in Norway for the first time, while others mark the evening abroad, he says, and perhaps send a thought to Kjell Inge Røkke, Bjørn Dæhli and others among Norway’s richest who bought a ticket in 2022 one way and they moved to a tax haven.
King Harald points out that 2022 has been a dramatic year.
– With Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine, a new gravity has come to our part of the world.
– All over our country, people have new neighbors. The refugees are now establishing their new lives in Norway in hopes of safety and well-being, with the good help of many who want them to settle down. I hope everyone who gets to make a new home in Norway will experience the warmth and safe haven they seek for themselves and their loved ones, she says.
– The climate is now the most severe
The monarch also points out that the world situation is changing in different ways and pointed to three K’s: war, conflict and climate.
And the greatest among them?
– The climate is now the most severe. We must do everything we can to protect our land. Both to protect people’s homes and to preserve the beautiful nature where all living things are connected.
– This is really an area where we need each other. Because we are all equally dependent on our land. And climate change does not stop at national borders.
Use his speech to launch a call to action:
– I sincerely hope that now we will be able to act in line with the seriousness of the situation.
– We fall and we get up
Nor did King Harald let this year’s speech pass without sharing a few winged words of wisdom:
– Both world history and Norwegian history and individual life histories are full of stories of falls and rises. This is the rhythm of history and of life itself. We fall and get up again. Again and again.
– But we rarely do it alone. We need each other. And we have to look up. Both out of the country, in solidarity with other people. And in our own lives.
Stronger and safer together
The monarch concluded his speech by recalling the common values that exist inside and outside our national borders. Democracy, unity and peace.
– In the last year we have experienced a new unity in the West and in Europe. Beyond other dividing lines, we have managed to stand together in a community of values and security. Our part of the world has recognized that we need each other. That we are both stronger and safer together. It gives hope in the situation we are in now and for the future.
