The controversy surrounding the purchase of a new yacht by the Belgian King and Queen continues. Public opinion cries out injustice about this luxury expense in times of economic hardship, as this purchase shook up especially the southern part of the country.

RTBF journalist Cristophe Deborsu, the same journalist who asked former Prime Minister Yves Leterme to sing the Brabançonne but got the Marseillaise in return, pulled another stunt interview. During the celebrations of the golden wedding anniversary of the King and Queen on 30 August, he approached the King and Queen, accompanied by a camera crew, and simply asked them if they felt affected by the controversy surrounding their yacht purchase.

Click to see full image at Zimbio

While the King dutifully ignored the question and his bodyguards tried to get the journalists out of hte way, the Queen responded to the question anyway. “Of course we feel the criticism is not fair. We’ve always had a yacht, since our marriage, so for the past 50 years. We started out with a small boat of about 2  – no 5 meter”.

By then, the bodyguards had succeeded in getting the journalists out of the way. Palace spokesman Pierre-Emmanuel De Bauw said in a statement that he was very dissapointed with the RTBF journalist. He stated that it had been explicitly forbidden to pose any questions to the King and Queen while microphones were in front of them, as is standard following Belgian protocol rules. This breach of protocol,  according to the spokesman, is clearly a problem of deontology.

For an article, see here (French).

LadyLeana Belgian Royals Finances, King Albert II, Queen Paola, Yachts

Click to see article at lanouvellegazette.be

New controversy hits Belgium while the royals are enjoying their holiday. It has become known that King Albert II of Belgium has bought a new yacht, the “Alpa” of 27 m long, 6.3 m wide, and capable of going up to 30 knots. According to the website of deredactie.be, the yacht is a “Technema 90″, built by the shipyard Rizzardi. Research of Soir Magazine has revealed that the catalogue price of such a boat is no less than 4.6 million euros. The acquisition of the new boat is very remarkable, as the King bought another yacht, the Quatuor, a “Incredibile 45″ of around 1.5 million euros, only two years ago. According to some sources, this boat would be for sale now.

Spokesman Pierre-Emmanuel De Bauw says that the King invests in the yacht because it is the only place where he can truly enjoy some privacy. He also stipulates that the King already bought the yacht last year, but that, since it is a private matter, the Palace did not communicate about it.

The Flemish right-wing party NVA already criticized this latest splurge of the royal family very severely. “So much for more ethics and less materialism, like the King said in his speech for the National Day”, says parliamentary Ben Weyts.

See here for an article in Dutch on deredactie.be and hln.be
See here for an article in French.

LadyLeana Belgian Royals Finances, King Albert II, Yachts