The Second World War became the ultimate test and “endurance test” of the monarchy in many countries. The King’s Choice is a 2016 Norwegian film released internationally under the English title King’s Choice. So it’s not about our “No”, which was said on our behalf by the dictator Ioannis Metaxas and thus overnight became the undisputed national leader. This is the answer given a little earlier, on April 10, 1940, by King Haakon VII (7th) of Norway to Hitler’s demand to appoint Vidkun Quislig, a German collaborator, whose name later became universally synonymous with betrayal, as prime minister. cooperation with them.

This episode of World War II is symbolic in many ways. First, it shows that the king can literally personify statehood and independence. The Germans initially planned to simply capture it, with a surprise landing in Oslo. However, they were delayed by a fort guarding the approaches to the sea, and with their fire they sank one of their cruisers, causing serious damage to another. Thus, the king and the crown prince managed to escape along with the government and parliament. After his refusal to cooperate with them, the Germans now simply sought to kill him with pinpoint bombing. In other words, first the capture and then the death of the king were in their eyes tantamount to the destruction of Norwegian statehood and independence.

Haakon VII had the distinction of being elected in 1905 by the Norwegians themselves with 79% of the vote in the referendum he requested. As a Danish prince, he was familiar to them. As their first king after more than five centuries (during which the Norwegian crown was held first by the kings of Denmark and from 1814 by the kings of Sweden), he chose the name of six old Norwegian kings and thus became 7th in line. Therefore, he told the astonished German envoy that he could not decide on his own, but only in consultation with the government. “We have a democracy,” she explains to him (in the film). Obviously, he “reigned” … After all, he clearly demonstrated his democratic concept in 1928, appointing the first left government and declaring: “I am the king of the communists”!

By his attitude, Haakon VII ensured that Norway offered strong resistance to the German invasion for two months, until the Anglo-French troops withdrew.

Following this, Haakon VII practically angered the Norwegian government by declaring that if they chose to submit to the Germans, he would abdicate along with Crown Prince Olaf and his entire family. Thus, Norway offered strong resistance to the German invasion for two months, until the Anglo-French troops withdrew. And when he was later in London with the government in exile, continuing the war, Haakon VII refused to abdicate as Parliament demanded, yielding to German threats. He invoked his oath. In the occupied country, the royal monogram (the letter “H” with the number “7”) has become a symbol of general resistance.

The fact that this particular film was made in 2016 shows how important it all remains to this day for the collective memory and national narrative of Norwegians. It also offers confirmation of historical continuity, as it features both the son and successor of Haakon VII, who ruled as Olaf V, and the grandson who reigns today as Harald V.

If Haakon VII fulfilled his mission as king to the highest degree, Leopold III of Belgium was a diametrically opposed case of complete failure. Against government opinion and contrary to constitutional order, on May 27, 1940, he surrendered unconditionally to the Germans along with his army, leaving allied British and French troops unprotected. He later refused to follow the government abroad and remained a German prisoner, first in occupied Belgium and then elsewhere. He thus divided the people, and his late return in 1950 nearly caused civil war and the collapse of the state, since in the corresponding referendum the majority of Flanders were with him, while the majority of the Francophones of Wallonia and Brussels were against him. He was eventually forced to resign in favor of his son. Only in this way was the monarchy saved at the last moment, and it remains to this day the most important common institution that unites Belgium as a federal state.

* The most recent book by Professor Giorgos T. Mavrogordatou is “National Integration and Discord: The Case of Greece”.