Parties discuss probe into baron's past
6 March 2003
AMSTERDAM — Home Affairs minister Johan Remkes met with parliamentary party chiefs Thursday to explain the background check conducted by the security service into the husband of Princess Margarita.
Remkes is also due to send a letter to parliament to answer awkward questions about why the check was necessary.
Opposition parties also want to know who gave the royal family confidential information from the so-called baron's social welfare file. In the last week, details of the file have appeared in the media.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told parliament that the BVD secret service, now renamed AIVD, obtained the file from Amsterdam's social welfare department in 2000.
He said this was part of a routine check into Edwin de Roy van Zuydewijn, who was engaged to the Queen's niece, Princess Margarita. Edwin, a businessman, is said to have bought the title of baron.
Balkenende reputed claims that the royal family ran a smear campaign against Edwin.
The Prime Minister said that Princess Margarita's suggestion that the head of the state information service RVD used a hidden microphone in his office to tape a conversation with the princess was "too crazy for words".
The RVD has denied the allegation and called in the state prosecutor to investigate the possibility of taking court action against Princess Margarita.
The RVD said what she described as a "small microphone sticking out between two wooden panels on a wall" was actually a screw. Some of Thursday newspapers carried photographs of a screw between two wooden panels on the wall.
The government is finding it more difficult to ward off questions about the social welfare file.
The couple appeared on current affairs programme NOVA on Thursday night and displayed a letter from previous Home Affairs Minister Klaas de Vries.
De Vries denied in the letter written in May 2002, the couple said, that the intelligence service had checked the baron's background.
The couple had asked the Home Affairs and Justice Ministeries to explain how Margarita's father, Carel Hugo de Bourbon de Parme, was aware of the contents of social welfare dossier.
Princess Margarita and her husband reportedly plan a EUR 35 million legal claim against the royal family for allegedly damaging his business interests.
The couple have cited the example of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander's marriage last year.
A royal correspondent commentating on the wedding on national television said she had heard Princess Margarita and Edwin were absent because of money worries.
It has since emerged Prince Willem-Alexander wrote to his cousin to say "in the present circumstances it is not opportune for you to come to the wedding".
Article From: Expatica.com