Comments by "Luredreier" (@Luredreier) on "Which European Monarchies Might be Abolished?" video.

  1. 17:03 I'd say they deserve 2 points on the popularity of the royal family. Both Märtha Louise and Mette-Marit are well liked. Yes, there has been criticism, but nothing even approaching anyone actually disliking them. As for the cost to tax payers, you have to remember to correct for local price levels, yes, they're expensive in total dollar amounts compared to other countries. But honestly the whole country is expensive. When you correct for that difference in cost between say us and the Swedes and Danes I think you'll find that they're not nearly as expensive as they might seem. And while they still have some additional costs it's still money well spent on a high rate of diplomatic activity (we'd essentially be paying for that anyway if we had a elected head of state) and on maintaining buildings of historical significance (again a expense we'd probably still have). The costs that remains after those two factors and when correcting for costs of just living in this country is actually fairly low. I agree that they don't qualify for 2 points there, but I'd honestly give them 1 there. Anyway, our royal family is a big part of why we even exist as a independent nation after WW2. During the war they gathered us against the occupying Germans and played a crucial role in our dipolmatic efforts towards the UK and US, our first king was married to a British princess so we had ties there, and with regards to the US, our royal family had just had a state visit to the US prior to the war and had started friendships with the president getting him on our side in a lot of the diplomacy during WW2, without them our merchant navy would probably have ended up being just taken by the Brits, our goverment in exile wouldn't have had the funds it ended up having, the income needed to fight the Germans both at home and abroad. And after the war the Soviets had already occupied a big part of northern Norway, but the Allies negotiated with the Soviets, conceding eastern Europe in return for us getting back our lands. We're definitly less likely to replace our monarchy then the Swedes are. The Danes... Living in Norway I'd like to think that we're less likely to replace our monarchy then they, but honestly, it's probably about equal. But yeah... But back to the Swedes. If they had another monarch like their current king their monarchy would be falling soon. Thankfully their crown-princess is as down to Earth as our own royal family, and the Swedish monarchy will survive her. Oh, and on the whole political roadblocks thing in Norway... We have a system of proportional representation. So it's not enough for one political party against the monarchy to become the biggest in the country. You need enough support to have a whole coalition against the monarchy in order to abolish it. Since there's both monarchist and republican parties on both sides of the political spectrum that's just not going to happen anytime soon. Oh, and also, our king doesn't have de jure veto power he does have de facto veto power since no law are valid without his signature. He has only used this once in 2008. A law had been proposed where the requirement of our king to be a lutheran was suggested removed. He stopped that law.
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