By Nazanine Nouri
Norway’s new King Haakon VIII has taken an oath of allegiance to the Constitution in a ceremony presided over by Masud Gharahkhani — the Iranian-born President of the Norwegian Parliament (Storting), who ranks second only to the monarch in the country’s official hierarchy.
Norway’s King Harald V passed away on Sept. 1, paving the way for his son Haakon to take over the throne. In Norway, a new monarch must swear allegiance to the Constitution in a ceremony officiated by the President of the Parliament.
During the ceremony, King Haakon VIII declared: “Honorable President of the Storting, I promise and swear that I will govern the Kingdom of Norway in accordance with its Constitution and Laws; so help me God, the Almighty and Omniscient.”
Paying tribute to the late king in his memorial speech, Gharahkhani said:
“Our dearly beloved King, His Majesty King Harald V, has passed away. The entire nation is mourning the loss of a monarch who served his country dutifully, with great courage and a warmth for 35 years. King Harald embodied the very best of Norway.”
“The sea of flowers we see across the country today speaks of one thing: Love,” noted Gharahkhani. “It is the Norwegian people’s thank you to a King whom we loved so dearly.”
“It was easy to love King Harald which is why it is so unbearably hard to say goodbye,” he added.
Gharahkhani has served as the President of the Norwegian National Assembly since December 31, 2021, and is the first immigrant to head the Presidium, the Storting’s highest administrative body.
Born in Tehran in 1982, he emigrated to Norway with his family at the age of 5. His father had been a trade unionist in Iran, but when they moved to Norway both of his parents started out as strawberry pickers.
His mother would go on to become a teacher, and his father found employment in local government. Gharahkhani himself graduated as a radiologic technologist from the Gjøvik University College, and has been working at the Blefjell Hospital in Norway.
A member of the Norwegian Labor Party from the city of Drammen, he was first elected as deputy representative to the parliament in 2009. He received a standing ovation for his speech about his journey from Iran to Norway at the Labor Party’s national convention in 2011.
During the 2017 parliamentary elections, he won a seat as representative of the Buskerud electoral district. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Norway’s prime minister at the time, called him “an extraordinary political talent” and “a success story in Norwegian society.”
As the newly elected speaker of parliament at the end of 2021, Gharahkhani indicated that he wanted to use his position to strengthen Norwegian democracy, the welfare state, gender equality and civil freedom – values which, he pointed out, were lacking in his motherland, Iran.
Gharahkhani is a strong supporter of immigrant integration, insisting that immigrant children must learn to speak Norwegian, which he views as an absolute prerequisite for succeeding in Norwegian society.
He has been an outspoken supporter of women’s rights in Norway but also in his homeland, Iran. Gharahkhani’s forceful reaction to the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 led Norway’s ambassador to Iran to be summoned by Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
