On this day: The King's eightieth birthday

Time flies, and today the King is suddenly eighty. While his seventieth birthday was the occasion of a major round of celebrations, he is spending his eigtieth (like his 75th) birthday on a private holiday abroad with the Queen, their children, daughter-in-law and five grandchildren.
The official celebration of his and the Queen's upcoming eightieth birthday will take place on 10 May, when the government will host a dinner in the foyer of Oslo's opera house (a departure from the usual practice of holding government dinners at Akershus Castle). The details are not yet known, but according to the Prime Minister foreign royals have been invited.

81 % support for Norwegian monarchy

On the occasion of the King's eightieth birthday tomorrow, state broadcaster NRK has commissioned an opinion poll (external link) from Norstat on whether Norway ought to be a monarchy or not. The poll finds that 81 % favour a monarchy, while 15 % want a republic and 4 % are undecided. Interestingly, support for the monarchy is highest among younger people. 85 % of those in their thirties support the monarchy, while 82 % of those under thirty do so.
This may be compared with the result of a similar poll undertaken by Norstat for NRK at the time of the bicentenary of Norway's independence in the spring of 2014, which found 82 % in favour of the monarchy (the decrease from 82 to 81 % is within the margin of error). If I recall, an opinion poll around the time of King Olav's death and King Harald's accession in 1991 found 87 % in favour of the monarchy, while the lowest support measured was 59 % in 2000, when there had been a number of controversies during the preceding years.