Dutch Budget, Constitutional Matters, Role in Society and Other Issues


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They are indeed all are alowed to vote. The RVD/ government information service did confirm to the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad that the King, his wife and daughters do not. I have not seen a statement and I don't think that a written statement was shared.

There is a written Q&A on the royal website however, which states:

Heeft de Koning stemrecht?
De Koning heeft stemrecht, maar maakt er geen gebruik van omdat hij onpartijdig is.

Aangezien stemmen in Nederland geheim is, zou dit kunnen leiden tot speculaties op welke partij de Koning stemt. Overigens zou de Koning, als dit niet het geval was, een blanco stem uitbrengen.

Ook Koningin Máxima en Prinses Beatrix maken geen gebruik van hun stemrecht.

Translated:

Does the King have the right to vote?
The King has the right to vote, but does not use it because he is impartial.

Since voting is secret in the Netherlands, this could lead to speculation about which party the King votes for. Moreover, if this were not the case, the King would cast a blank vote.

Queen Máxima and Princess Beatrix also do not use their voting rights.

https://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/onder...n/vraag-en-antwoord/heeft-de-koning-stemrecht

It seems the statement was not updated yet to include the answer to the question of the Algemeen Dagblad about the daughters voting or not.

Princess Laurentien commented in 2017 that her brother-in-law had 'a very good reason' not to vote. In 2017 the king was asked what he would do IF voting would be made obligatory. His reply was that he would vote 'blanco'. It is in line with the statement above.

There are photos of Queen Emma going to the polling station in 1922, the first time women were allowed to vote. You can see her arriving to (at 1.10) and leaving after the vote, at minute 1:57:


When a politician asked Queen Wilhelmina if she would vote, she replied that she would not. She joked that if she did, she would vote for the homeless Amsterdam street mucisian 'Had-je-me-maar' (Cornelis de Gelder) who was a candidate for an anarchistic anti-election protest-party (Rapaille Partij). The party wanted to protest against the obligation to vote. Just before the city elections of 1921 he was arrested due to public drunkenness and he spent election day in a penal colony.

Queen Juliana voted in 1935. And after her abdication she wanted to use her right to vote again and did so in 1998.

According to the AD, Prince Constantijn and his wife do vote.

https://www.bd.nl/show/koninklijk-g...cb=0293a50e6d13e09a0218454aaf537a74&auth_rd=1

I doubt it that King Willem III, his brother Prince Hendrik or his uncle Prince Frederik voted.
 
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Thanks for the comprehensive explanation of the royals' history with voting. Interesting that different royals in the same position have come to different decisions about whether to vote.
 
While I understand Amalia not voting - as future queen. I am a bit surprised that Alexia doesn't vote either (given that she is on a gap year, she might not have prioritized voting if travelling).
 
While I understand Amalia not voting - as future queen. I am a bit surprised that Alexia doesn't vote either (given that she is on a gap year, she might not have prioritized voting if travelling).

she is a royal she shouldnt be voting at all
 
she is a royal she shouldnt be voting at all

In for example Luxembourg (and Belgium if I remember correctly) even the heir votes. Imho especially the monarch and future monarchs shouldn't vote. To me, it is different for those not in direct line for the throne. Should countess Leonore (who is the second-last in line to the throne) not vote when she turns 18?
 
It seems the first steps in forming the new government are messy. The 'verkenner' (scout) needs to map coalition preferencies of the various paries. The first one was Mr. Gomerus van Strien, a senator for the PVV. He was forced to quit within a day (!) as there is a lawsuit going on between him and the University of Utrecht, who accuses him of embazzlement and bribes etc. A second one may be the former Education minister Ronald Plassterk, let's see how long they manage to keep him.

The previous process in 2021 was a mess too.

The job description is somebody above parties, a person of integrity, on a distance from day to day politics etc. It is the description of the monarch. All of The Hague knows it but it is unlikely they will ever admit that the removal of the King (or rather Queen) in 2012 was an error that has complicated matters even more and has made this whole thing even more of a telenovela.
 
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