King Harald V of Norway died on Friday (28) at the age of 89, after more than three decades on the throne. The Royal Palace in Oslo confirmed the death, according to G1. The monarch had been hospitalized since August 17 at Oslo University Hospital, where he was treated with cortisone for hemolytic anemia and also developed a bacterial blood infection. On Thursday (27), the Royal Court said his condition was "very serious". Pope Leo XIV expressed his sorrow over the king's death, Vatican News reported.
Harald V was Europe's oldest monarch and had reigned since January 17, 1991, when he succeeded his father, Olav V. Norway is a constitutional monarchy in which the king performs mainly ceremonial duties as head of state. In his final days, Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon, who was already acting as regent during his father's absence, cancelled engagements and went to the hospital. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre called off a trip to Germany, public television changed its programming and Norwegians laid flowers outside the Royal Palace in Oslo. The throne now passes to Haakon, first in the line of succession.
What the king's death means for Brazil
In Brazil, the reaction ran through environmental diplomacy. The Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM, in its Portuguese acronym) published a note of condolence calling Harald V a "symbol of conservation". According to the institute, the king, on the throne for more than three decades, "gave visibility to Norway's role in environmental diplomacy, contributing to the international debate on climate and the protection of tropical forests". The business outlet Brazil Journal remembered him as "the king of Norway who loved Brazil", in a piece dedicated to his relationship with the country.
Born on February 21, 1937, in Skaugum, in the Asker region, Harald was the first prince born in Norway in 567 years, at a time when only men could inherit the throne. At age 3, he left the country with his mother and sisters after the Nazi Germany invasion in 1940, living in exile first in Sweden and then in the United States until the family returned in 1945. He became crown prince in 1957 and, in 1968, married Sonja Haraldsen, a commoner, a union that stirred debate at the time. A dedicated sailor, he competed for Norway in three editions of the Olympic Games, carried the Norwegian flag at the opening of the 1964 Tokyo Games and won world and European titles, according to G1 and Exame.
Throughout his reign, Harald built an image of closeness to ordinary Norwegians and acted as a figure of unity in moments of crisis. After the July 22, 2011 attacks, in which 77 people were killed, he defended an open and democratic society; in 2016, marking 25 years of reign, he gave a speech praising the diversity of the Norwegian population, Exame recalls. His health, however, deteriorated: he underwent bladder cancer surgery in 2003, a heart operation in 2005 and received a pacemaker in 2024 after falling ill during a trip to Malaysia. Unlike other European monarchs, he refused to abdicate and said the oath he had sworn before Parliament was for life.
The final months of his reign were marked by turmoil in the royal family. In June 2026, Crown Princess Mette-Marit underwent a lung transplant, and her son Marius Borg Høiby was sentenced to four years in prison on two rape charges, which he appealed. Documents also revealed contacts between Mette-Marit and Jeffrey Epstein, for which she apologized to the king and queen. According to G1, support for the monarchy fell from 72% to 61% in one year, with 27% of Norwegians favoring a republic, but Parliament overwhelmingly rejected, by 141 of 169 votes, a proposal to abolish the system. Haakon therefore succeeds his father at a moment when the institution still holds majority backing, though more worn than at the start of Harald's reign.