Published: August 24, 2010
By John TagliabueSTOCKHOLM — Two dozen members of an association to abolish the monarchy were settled around a table in a spacious apartment in the north end of the capital when someone in the back of the room muttered, “Two hundred years since the French Revolution, and still we have a king.”
In other times and in other places, these would-be regicides might have been hounded by the king’s agents. But here in liberal Sweden, they are thriving.
Indeed, so fast has membership in the Swedish Republican Association grown in recent months, rising to more than 7,300 from 2,500 one year ago, that the meeting was called to discuss a number of ambitious proposals, including the opening of a permanent office, the founding of an antimonarchist newspaper and the formation of a pan-European antimonarchist movement.
The group envisions branches in the seven countries where kings or queens still reign, including Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden’s Scandinavian neighbors, Denmark and Norway.
“Support for monarchy is falling across Europe,” said Mona Abou-Jeib Broshammar, the association’s secretary general.
To be sure, 7,300 members is not much in a country of nine million, yet the association’s growth is notable, given that Sweden is riding a monarchist high in the wake of the fairy-tale wedding in June of Crown Princess Victoria, 33, to her former fitness trainer.
Mona Abou-Jeib Broshammar, secretary general of the Swedish Republican Association, spoke to members last week in Stockholm. There are more than 7,300 members of the association.
For the wedding parade, thousands flocked to the capital; millions more watched on television. Stores across the country featured porcelain dishes and cups, wooden trays, dishtowels and aprons, postcards and fountain pens adorned with portraits of the smiling couple.
Yet amid the monarchic euphoria, doubts lingered. Although Sweden’s leading newspaper, Aftonbladet, established a team in February to cover the wedding, it supplemented bright photos and gushy coverage of the royal court with editorials and opinion pieces, even cartoons, critical of the monarchy. Then, last spring, a leading polling group, the SOM Institute, published results of a survey showing that support for the monarchy had dropped to 56 percent, from 68 percent six years earlier.
“It was important that there also be some critical pieces, too,” said Susanne Nylen, who led the team covering the wedding. “All this money was being spent; some were critical.”
The attitude of Ms. Nylen, who was the newspaper’s London correspondent before assuming the royal beat, is like that of many Swedes. “I can see that the monarchy is not in line with democracy, and I see why people are against it,” she said. “But they are good at representing Sweden; it’s hard to get publicity the same way with a president.”
Moreover, as the wedding date approached, less criticism was heard. Aftonbladet found that 74 percent of respondents in a survey supported the monarchy.
Anders Janeborn is one of those supporters. “I think it’s good; it’s a historic thing,” said Mr. Janeborn, whose company sells fitness equipment.
King Carl XVI Gustaf was expected this weekend in Mr. Janeborn’s village to celebrate its 900th anniversary “with a big party,” Mr. Janeborn said. To those who object that upkeep of the royal family costs about $16 million a year, he argued, “they bring in far more; they’re selling Sweden in a good way.”
Mr. Janeborn’s surety is not shared by Nina Hemmingsson. Early on, Aftonbladet invited Ms. Hemmingsson, 38, a cartoonist and kind of Swedish R.Crumb, to contribute cartoons commenting on the wedding. “I was always very skeptical of the royal family,” said Ms. Hemmingsson, who works out of a basement studio outside Stockholm.
“They are so special, people don’t even think they go to the toilet,” she said of the royalty. “Yet, they’re a symbol of a time in history that was not democratic, so they’re a bad symbol.”
At first, she said, Aftonbladet gave her a free hand. “Then they said, ‘Don’t call the princess in your cartoons ‘Victoria,’ just ‘the crown princess,’ ’ and then, ‘Just princess,’ ” she said. “And they said from the start, ‘No sex.’ ”
Lennart Nilsson of the SOM Institute said that confidence in the royal family has dropped year by year since the institute began measuring it in 1995. “It continues going down,” he said.
Yet he sees no urgency from society for making a change. In September, Swedes will vote in national elections, but the monarchy is not an issue. “Other issues” — like jobs, education and health care — “are much more urgent,” Mr. Nilsson said.
The Swedish Republican Association is in for the long haul, said Ms. Broshammar, its secretary general. Born in Lebanon to a Syrian father and Swedish mother, Ms. Broshammar, 32, is emblematic of the changes overtaking Sweden. She moved to Sweden when her family fled Lebanon because of war there. “I have seen how a country can fall apart for lack of democracy and human rights,” she said, adding that she has received hateful messages about her heritage — her father is Muslim and her mother Christian. “Because of my multiethnic background, they say I should leave the country. They’re racists, not monarchists.”
Still, she does not suggest that Sweden will end up like Lebanon. “My best friend is a monarchist; she loves the fashion, the marketing of the royal family,” she said. “On a rational level she agrees with me; on an emotional level she disagrees.”
The association has attracted some high-powered figures, including the minister for European affairs and leading members of several political parties. Most parties on the left include in their platform the establishment of a republic, but none pursue it actively. The leaders of all parties in Parliament were invited to Victoria’s wedding; only Lars Ohly, 53, leader of the Left Party, formerly Sweden’s Communists, stayed away.
The members discussed a name change for the Republican Association, so as not to be confused with the party of John McCain and Sarah Palin, Ms. Broshammar said. And if they ever succeed in deposing the monarchy, said Magnus Simonsson, a member of the Liberal Party and the association, they promise leniency to the king.
“He would be more free than he is today,” Mr. Simonsson said, grinning. “And of course he can stay in Sweden.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: August 27, 2010
The Stockholm Journal article on Wednesday, about a movement in Sweden to abolish the monarchy, described incorrectly the circumstances surrounding the breakup of Prince Carl Philip and his girlfriend. It was amicable, not “because of his alleged philandering.” The article also misidentified the subject of a comment by Susanne Nylen, the monarchy reporter for Aftonbladet, Sweden’s leading newspaper. When she said, “We knew about his affairs for a long time,” she was speaking about the former boyfriend of Princess Madeleine, a sister of Carl Philip — not about Carl Philip himself.
