Princess Estelle skirts Swedish naming laws
Princess Estelle's surname, or rather lack of one, has become a matter for the Parliamentary Ombudsman (Justitieombudsmannen, JO) to look into.
A man has reported the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) for allowing Sweden's Royal Family to skirt naming laws requiring everyone to have a surname.
According to Swedish naming laws, everyone who is born in Sweden must have a last name. But for those born with blue blood, the tax agency appears prepared to bend the rules, according to an article in newspaper Dagens Juridik.
Estelle, her mother Crown Princess Victoria, and the rest of Sweden's royal family, belong to the House of Bernadotte.
However, they do not use Bernadotte as their surname, with the exception of the country's newest prince, Prince Daniel, whose full name is Daniel Westling Bernadotte.
The other members of the Royal Family simply have an asterisk (*) in the place where their surnames ought to be on the national registration form.
"This is completely based on an unwritten constitutional praxis, that the members of the royal family don't have surnames," Lars Tegenfeldt, the tax agency's legal expert on census questions, said to Dagens Juridik.
Tegenfeldt is against the special treatment of Princess Estelle.
"I've understood that it's useless to try and change this. I've also understood that the Swedish people most likely approve of the Royal Family receiving special treatment in this way. This seems to be the case for people who, dare I say it, ought to know better," Tegenfeldt said.
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A man has reported the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) for allowing Sweden's Royal Family to skirt naming laws requiring everyone to have a surname.
According to Swedish naming laws, everyone who is born in Sweden must have a last name. But for those born with blue blood, the tax agency appears prepared to bend the rules, according to an article in newspaper Dagens Juridik.
Estelle, her mother Crown Princess Victoria, and the rest of Sweden's royal family, belong to the House of Bernadotte.
However, they do not use Bernadotte as their surname, with the exception of the country's newest prince, Prince Daniel, whose full name is Daniel Westling Bernadotte.
The other members of the Royal Family simply have an asterisk (*) in the place where their surnames ought to be on the national registration form.
"This is completely based on an unwritten constitutional praxis, that the members of the royal family don't have surnames," Lars Tegenfeldt, the tax agency's legal expert on census questions, said to Dagens Juridik.
Tegenfeldt is against the special treatment of Princess Estelle.
"I've understood that it's useless to try and change this. I've also understood that the Swedish people most likely approve of the Royal Family receiving special treatment in this way. This seems to be the case for people who, dare I say it, ought to know better," Tegenfeldt said.
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