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Swedish king has no plans to step aside for popular daughter

The Local Sweden
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Swedish king has no plans to step aside for popular daughter
Crown Princess Victoria holds Prince Oscar as King Carl Gustaf delivers remarks on Saturday. Princess Estelle looks on. Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad/TT

Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria may have basked in the glow of adulation on her 40th birthday on Friday, but she shouldn’t expect to take over the throne anytime soon.

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Victoria is by far the most popular member of the Royal Family in Sweden. According to a poll carried out by Sifo on behalf of Svensk Damtidning earlier this year, almost one in two picked her as their favourite royal. Forty percent said they thought her father King Carl XVI Gustaf should retire and hand over the throne to her.
 
But while the king may share his subjects’ fondness for his daughter, he made clear on Saturday that he’s in no hurry to step aside and make way for Victoria. 
 
In an interview with Aftonbladet, King Carl XVI Gustaf said he had no plans to abdicate the throne. 
 
Asked when he thought he would be ready to hand over power, he said the question was “a matter for God”. 
 
“I will ask God when I die,” the king told Aftonbladet before the Royal Family’s head of communications attempted to put an end to the questioning. 
 
Asked if that meant he would remain king for as long as physically possible, Gustaf replied “Yes, I’ll try, I’ll try.”
 
The Local was on the streets of Stockholm on Friday as admirers turned out in droves to catch a glimpse of Victoria on her 40th birthday. 
 
 
Victoria is generally described in Sweden as quite down to earth. When she married her personal trainer Daniel Westling in 2010 around half a million turned out on the streets of the capital to greet the newlyweds. She and Daniel have seemed to adopt a modern, gender equal Swedish take on parenting as well and made headlines when they went on maternity and paternity leave when their children, Estelle and Oscar, were born.
 
King Carl XVI Gustaf has been Sweden’s monarch since 1973. 

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