Over a third of Swedes have lost faith in King Carl XVI Gustaf

The poll carried out by Novus Opinion on behalf of Sweden’s TV4 news shows that 35 percent of Swedes have little or very little faith in the King, while only 30 percent support him and the rest remain ambivalent.

The monarchy retains the support of the majority of the population however, with 56 percent favouring its retention. Some 32 percent of those polled would like to see Crown Princess Victoria take over from her father.

The King has been swamped by scandal since the publication of an unathorized tell-all book, “Carl XVI Gustaf - den motvillige monarken” (“Carl XVI Gustaf – the reluctant monarch”) last November.

The controversial book detailed the King’s alleged visits to porn clubs, claims of an affair, as well as alleged connections to the criminal underworld. King Carl XVI Gustaf was aware of friend Anders Lettström‘s attempts to silence the scandals described in the book The Unwilling Monarch (Den motvillige monarken), Lettström claimed in tramscripts of tape recordings published by newspaper Aftonbladet

On Lettström’s initiative, Daniel Webb, acting for well-known criminal Milan Sevo, tried to get sex club owner Mille Markovic to deny the information published in the scandalous book about the Swedish king.

As well as a denial from Markovic, Lettström wanted to buy the alleged scandalous pictures of the king at Markovic’s club, reported Aftonbladet.

Lettström’s silencing attempts are said to have gone on for some months, without a deal being struck with Markovic.

The king publically renounced Lettström’s actions in an interview with news agency TT in May. When asked if the king had known about Anders Lettström’s contacts with Stockholm’s criminal underworld, the king responded with a definite no.

In tape recordings made by Daniel Webb, however, Lettström claims to have informed the king of his ongoings.

“After our meeting on Kungsholmen I spoke with the king that evening, and told him that you’d said Mille was willing to deny, and that he wanted to be paid for it. You didn’t know how much, but thought it would be between one and two million,” Lettström said to Webb in the recording.

Lettström repeats that he has spoken to the king about contacting Markovic once more in the same conversation.

“If we paid Mille for his denial, he would make sure that some of his sources denied it too. That’s what our deal entailed, and I’ve mentioned it to the king,” said Lettström according to Aftonbladet.

The recordings of Lettström’s conversations with Webb haven’t previously been published.

However, Lettström maintains that the king was unaware of his contacts with Daniel Webb, and claims the sound material is manipulated.

“It’s like a photo montage, only with sound. It’s taken out of context,” said Lettström to Aftonbladet.

The company Voxanalys and British experts on sound analysis have, acting on Aftonbladet’s behalf, investigated the recordings. The Swedish and British experts both judged the recordings free from manipulation, modification or cuts from different recordings.

The court’s information officer Bertil Ternert was unwilling to comment further on the matter, stating that information about these recordings has already been published and commented. 

Ternert added that an allegation made by Lettström on the recordings, namely that the king’s telephone was being tapped by the National Bureau of Investigation (Rikskriminalpolisen), was “remarkable”, according to Aftonbladet.

While initial buzz from the book died down after a few weeks, reports surfaced in May that a close friend of the King had turned to a reputed gangster for help in burying incriminating pictures of the King and his friends.

Royal scandal once again swept across Sweden, with the King finally agreeing to a lengthy and highly-questioned interview with news agency TT in an attempt to clear his name.

The story re-surfaced recently when the King’s close friend Anders Lettströmconfirmed that the King was aware his attempts to silence the scandals by arranging to pay off known gangster Mille Markovic.

The King publicly renounced Lettström’s actions in an interview with news agency TT in May. When asked if the king had known about Anders Lettström’s contacts with Stockholm’s criminal underworld, the King responded with a definite no.

The Local