Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden has participated in the Swedish Parliament’s celebration of Nordic Day.
The Riksdag (the Swedish parliament) held a seminar on 23 March, and the Speaker of the Riksdag invited several people to mark the 70th anniversary of the Nordic Council.
Those invited included the Nordic Council’s Swedish delegation, members of parliament and officials. Historian Gunnar Wetterberg spoke at the seminar on the Nordic region before panel discussions were arranged on Nordic cooperation and the prevention of border barriers.
The Crown Princess attended a complex seminar with several different elements. In addition to Wetterberg’s speech, there was also a political discussion where several prominent Swedish politicians shared their views on how to further manage and strengthen cooperation between the Nordic nations. Victoria and the others also viewed videos with greetings from the other Nordic countries and the autonomous territories.
In 1845, His Majesty King Charles XV of Sweden and Norway gathered representatives and students to what has been known as the Great Nordic Party. However, the largest celebration of Nordic Day was in October 1936, when three kings and a president spoke about Nordic cooperation in a joint radio broadcast. The most famous of these speeches was given by King Gustav V of Sweden, who called for unity between the Nordic people.
The Nordic nations have always worked closely together as the languages and cultures are quite similar. From 1397 to 1523, most of today’s Nordic region was united under a joint monarchy called the Kalmar Union.
On 23 March 1962, the Helsinki Agreement was signed; the plan was to strengthen cooperation politically, economically and culturally. Since then, 23 March has been celebrated as “Nordic Day” by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.
