The 18th Birthday of Princess Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange - 2021

[Katymcwaity]

Oh dear, People are not going to be impressed.

 

[Marengo]

The Royal House needs no enemies. They are their own useful idiots. For Princess Amalia's birthday there were more than 100 guests outside in the park of Huis ten Bosch, so wrote the newspaper De Telegraaf

That is far exceeding the maximum number of guests during the partial lockdown. The State Information Agency stated that 21 guests were invited but not all of them have attended.

In the meantime the King has informed the Prime Minister that "by hindsight it was not wise to organize it in this way, in the own park". It seems the idea was: it is outside. The Prime Minister has fully agreed with the King's assessment.

So despite the Greek debacle, neither the King, nor the Queen, nor the Princesses have had one milli-second of a feeling in their social and political antenna: "Wait a moment, it is Covid, isn't it?".

The RVD said that 21 people were invited and less attended as some of the guests did not show up.

There is a saying in Dutch, saying that in general even a donkey doesn't hit the same stone twice, but the royal family just keeps banging their heads against the same spot in the wall.

And yes, I know that there is probably not one person in the entire country who actually knows the rules - which keep changing, let alone follow them to the minute- and yes, the rules can be illogical, and yes it was outside in the open air, and yes if they would have organised it in a public outside area instead of their own garden there would not have been an issue ....

But after 3 previous Covid incidents, a humiliating mea culpa on television ánd a slump in their poll numbers you wonder who on earth is advising them? Was it so difficult to check and to double check? Would it have been such a disaster to postpone the party a few months?

https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/1023058886/verjaardagsfeestje-amalia-loopt-uit-de-hand

The prime minister was 'surprised' by the new incident. The King has confessed to the PM that it was clumsy to organise the party. The RVD added that everybody was vaccinated, they were asked to do a test beforehand, distances were respected etc.

Anyway, they are lucky as there is a lot of news this week: Omicron, the new government finally came to an agreement etc. so perhaps it will have to compete with that so I imagine this one will blow over.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

TheRVD said that 21 people were invited and less attended as some of the guests did not show up.

There is a saying in Dutch, saying that in general even a donckey doesn't hit the same stone twice, but the royal family just keeps banging their heads against the same spot in the wall. How difficult can it be?

And yes, I know that there is probably not one person in the entire country who actually knows the rules - which keep changing- and yes, the rules can be illogical, and yes it was outside in the open air.... But after 3 previous Covid incidents, a humiliating mea culpa on television ánd a slump in their poll numbers you wonder who on earth is advising these people?

https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/1023058886/verjaardagsfeestje-amalia-loopt-uit-de-hand

The prime minister was 'surprised' by the new incident. The King has confessed to the PM that it was clumsy to organise the party. The RVD added that everybody was vaccinated, they were asked to do a test beforehand, distances were respected etc.

Last week they asked the Queen if they would celebrate the birthday party and how. IIRC she said that they were still wondering what to do. At the time I wondered if they would be silly enough to actually organise a celebration.

Oh Amalia could not care less. In the book Amalia she more or less states that if people want to end the monarchy: be her guest. She will continue her life anyway.

She seems not at all desperately clinging to a throne and maybe indeed sees that one day monarchies will end anyway. Definitely no sort of Freiin von Münchhausen pulling herself out of a sinking monarchist swamp, she seems to have a quite calculated opinion on that.

 

[Somebody]

The Royal House needs no enemies. They are their own useful idiots. For Princess Amalia's birthday there were more than 100 guests outside in the park of Huis ten Bosch, so wrote the newspaper De Telegraaf

That is far exceeding the maximum number of guests during the partial lockdown. The State Information Agency stated that 21 guests were invited but not all of them have attended.

In the meantime the King has informed the Prime Minister that "by hindsight it was not wise to organize it in this way, in the own park". It seems the idea was: it is outside. The Prime Minister has fully agreed with the King's assessment.

So despite the Greek debacle, neither the King, nor the Queen, nor the Princesses have had one milli-second of a feeling in their social and political antenna: "Wait a moment, it is Covid, isn't it?".

Very unwise indeed. You would hope they would have learned from past mistake? In hindsight, it wasn't a good idea? It wasn't to hard to come up with that thought beforehand... They clearly thought that moving the party from inside the palace to the garden would be sufficient but seem to forget that they live 'under a magnifying glass' (as is the Dutch expression; not sure whether it is used in English as well); and should adhere to the 'advice' given by the government.

 

[Somebody]

Oh Amalia could not care less. In the book Amalia she more or less states that if people want to end the monarchy: be her guest. She will continue her life anyway.

She seems not at all desperately clinging to a throne and maybe indeed sees that one day monarchies will end anyway. Definitely no sort of Freiin von Münchhausen pulling herself out of a sinking monarchist swamp, she seems to have a quite calculated opinion on that.

I don't think 'Amalia could care less' is an accurate statement. She seems rather dutiful and while she would move on with her life in the event the Netherlands would become a republic that doesn't mean that she intends to do as she pleases because she'd be fine if the monarchy would fall (because of her).

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

This is getting ridiculous and won't do the Dutch monarchy any good.
How often will WA break corona or other rules for personal pleasure and express his 'regret', once it becomes public knowledge?
Holidays in Greece, now the birthday party ... he seems reluctant to see that he should lead by example.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-new...t-defied-rules

 

[Lee-Z]

This is getting ridiculous and won't do the Dutch monarchy any good.
How often will WA break corona or other rules for personal pleasure and express his 'regret', once it becomes public knowledge?
Holidays in Greece, now the birthday party ... he seems reluctant to see that he should lead by example.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-new...t-defied-rules

Occassionally i get the feeling the king sees himself as a civil servant, dutifull within office hours, but outside office hours he wants to lead his private life as he wants it.

 

[eya]

This is getting ridiculous and won't do the Dutch monarchy any good.
How often will WA break corona or other rules for personal pleasure and express his 'regret', once it becomes public knowledge?
Holidays in Greece, now the birthday party ... he seems reluctant to see that he should lead by example.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-new...t-defied-rules

Agreee!

They want to have the privileges but without the obligations.
Μust change advisers or those they have MUST listen to them, because obviously the King and Queen can not manage some situations.

 

[Marengo]

Occassionally i get the feeling the king sees himself as a civil servant, dutifull within office hours, but outside office hours he wants to lead his private life as he wants it.

I think this is the crux of the whole problem. Hans Jacobs of GDP press/royal blog wrote about it last year too, and so did Dorine Hermans. The King seems to think that there is a difference between him in his private time and him in function. And that in his private time he can do whatever he wants. 15 years of incidents can be explained when keeping this in mind, from Moçambique to this party.

As said: I suspect it will blow over- even though it is on the front page of the Telegraaf today- but it does mean that all the previous incidents will be dragged up once again. In a few years when the details have been long forgotten, what will remain in the public perception is a feeling of a RF that shows little solidarity with the rest of the country and do as they please.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

I think this is the crux of the whole problem. Hans Jacobs of GDP press/royal blog wrote about it last year too, and so did Dorine Hermans. The King seems to think that there is a difference between him in his private time and him in function. And that in his private time he can do what he wants.

As said: I do not think this is considered a big story, but it does mean that all the previous incidents will be dragged up once again. When the details have been forgotten, what remains in the public perception will be a feeling of a RF that shows little solidarity with the rest of the country and do as they please.

Yesterday, by coincidence, I saw a TV-documentary on NPO 2 about the Oranges and their long history with Lech am Arlberg in Austria. When Kurt Waldheim (former member of the NSDAP, the SA and an active officer in the Wehrmacht) was president in Austria and when the extreme-rightist party of Jörg Haider was in the Austrian coalition, the Dutch politicians were unhappy with the Queen going to Lech as normal.


Queen Beatrix apparently felt stinged as a wasp: this was a private affair. Both times she blissfully ignored the politicans. (In comparison, WA & M clumsy gaffes were nothing, compared with Beatrix' demonstrative attitude !).


So it fits in a tradition, as also the generations before Beatrix made a separation in the public office and their private person.

 

[lucien]

Sorry Henri,they are no fools!" Sources" what " sources"??In my day and age one had a nowadays odd commodity,discretion and loyalty!!One would never talk on or about visits to the RF!....21 People in an open tent in that huge park is way OK!!let the girl alone,back off!!Typical that NSB rag the Telegraaf to use Amaliua by lack of news of and by the umptiest nausiating covid expert!!Bah,you only get 18 once in your life,I don't care for negatieve opininions ,not from the dutch nor anyone else.Gawd,she must be mad to want to become Queen of this country of azijnzeikers......no translation availeble ...I fully support the party,in every possible way and do away with negativity towards her!

 

[Marengo]

The source would be the King himself, who has notified the prime minister, who in turn wrote a letter to parlament:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1471214089875693569

Apparently the prime minister is on a first name basis with the RF as he simply refers to 'Amalia' and not to 'the princess of Orange' or at least 'princess Amalia'.

I don't disagree with your post perse and certainly am not a big fan of the Telegraaf newspaper. However I don't see why the RF needs to keep stumbling from one incident to the next one. It takes a special talent to be this clumsy, even undoing the PR bombardment of the last weeks for the image of the Princess.

They could have forseen this -and many of the other incidents- and the fact that they didn't should be cause for concern in The Hague. One would almost hope they would get a prime minister who tightens the grip a bit. As with everything Rutte is a hands-off politician. It enabled him and his party to survive political scandals but it also led to many -much bigger- problems in society and it is doing the RF no favor.

 

[lucien]

The source would be the King himself, who has notified the prime minister, who in turn wrote a letter to parlament:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1471214089875693569

Apparently the prime minister is on a first name basis with the RF as he simply refers to 'Amalia' and not to 'the princess of Orange' or at least 'princess Amalia'.

I don't disagree with your post perse and certainly am not a big fan of the Telegraaf newspaper. However I don't see why the RF needs to keep stumbling from one incident to the next one. It takes a special talent to be this clumsy, even undoing the PR bombardment of the last weeks for the image of the Princess.

Oh well,houses and pubs were crowded last sunday with all millions of Dutch watching Max Verstappen becoming World Champion,WC....and that is exactly where I just flushed this none issue too,these negative comments...the hypocrisy of it all...No one,not even here,is holyer than thou...

 

[lucien]

Oh well,houses and pubs were crowded last sunday with all millions of Dutch watching Max Verstappen becoming World Champion,WC....and that is exactly where I just flushed this none issue too,these negative comments...the hypocrisy of it all...No one,not even here,is holyer than thou...

But,that said,maybe it is not all that long before Amalia is called to the throne and like her grandmother,will be all about damage controle and restauring the institution again.Alexander is a bit of a Harderwijker yes.But still...

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

If Amalia is the damage-control type then she has neglected two opportunities:


- when the King and Queen returned to the Netherlands from Greece (with that clumsy vacation), Amalia stayed in Greece


- Amalia herself apparently saw nothing wrong in having a big party while she could have known better as a honourable member of the Raad van State and somewone who could be Queen tomorrow....

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

The source would be the King himself, who has notified the prime minister, who in turn wrote a letter to parlament:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1471214089875693569

Apparently the prime minister is on a first name basis with the RF as he simply refers to 'Amalia' and not to 'the princess of Orange' or at least 'princess Amalia'.

I don't disagree with your post perse and certainly am not a big fan of the Telegraaf newspaper. However I don't see why the RF needs to keep stumbling from one incident to the next one. It takes a special talent to be this clumsy, even undoing the PR bombardment of the last weeks for the image of the Princess.

They could have forseen this -and many of the other incidents- and the fact that they didn't should be cause for concern in The Hague. One would almost hope they would get a prime minister who tightens the grip a bit. As with everything Rutte is a hands-off politician. It enabled him and his party to survive political scandals but it also led to many -much bigger- problems in society and it is doing the RF no favor.

Most likely it is a letter drafted by a stagiaire, hastily signed by Rutte, as busy as he is with the end-game of the formation of a new Cabinet.


Amalia instead of prinses Amalia
leden van het koninklijk huis instead of leden van het Koninklijk Huis
de koning instead of de Koning

 

[Moran]

It doesn't look good but IMO, it's going to pass, especially with the corona giving so many people the "chance" to do something they don't approve. Yesterday, a friend, unvaccinated by choice, asked for my green certificate so she can go to non-food shops. I marveled at her audacity because she knows what I think of the whole issue but I have no doubt she WILL get this certificate from someone else. (Control here is non-existent. They require to see certificates but no IDs, so I can just let any woman copy mine and voila, no one's gonna ask if she's Moran.) With the measures taken all over the world and people flaunting the rules, I think WA and everyone else's divisions of "me the worker" and "me as me" is going to be glossed over as "well, not nice but don't we all do it and hey, we aren't monsters because of it!"

 

[An Ard Ri]

Good Lord the blundering Dutch royals don't seem to have learnt anything from the Greek holiday fiasco and more bad publicity.

This will pass too but the king should know better.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

Good Lord the blundering Dutch royals don't seem to have learnt anything from the Greek holiday fiasco and more bad publicity.

This will pass too but the king should know better.

Why the King?


What about the Queen?


What about the now 18-years old State Councillor who can vote, drink alcohol, buy a house, have a driving license and make her very own independent adult decisons?

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

It doesn't look good but IMO, it's going to pass, especially with the corona giving so many people the "chance" to do something they don't approve. Yesterday, a friend, unvaccinated by choice, asked for my green certificate so she can go to non-food shops. I marveled at her audacity because she knows what I think of the whole issue but I have no doubt she WILL get this certificate from someone else. (Control here is non-existent. They require to see certificates but no IDs, so I can just let any woman copy mine and voila, no one's gonna ask if she's Moran.) With the measures taken all over the world and people flaunting the rules, I think WA and everyone else's divisions of "me the worker" and "me as me" is going to be glossed over as "well, not nice but don't we all do it and hey, we aren't monsters because of it!"

Yes, it is not so big news. There is a new Cabinet and a tsunami of plans is rolled out. The little gaffe of Amalia is understood here at my office alike: "What harm is it? Outside in the park?"

 

[lucien]

Yes, it is not so big news. There is a new Cabinet and a tsunami of plans is rolled out. The little gaffe of Amalia is understood here at my office alike: "What harm is it? Outside in the park?"

It is not so big news,no,as if there is nothing more important going on for Pete´s sake!!Get a life and get on with it I say!

 

[An Ard Ri]

Why the King?


What about the Queen?

The king is the Monarch/Head of State.

 

[A-Bik]

Yet another yikes!
The DRF need new PR 'reading the pandemic room' people.

 

[Somebody]

I'm afraid the Royal Family again looked for what (in their eyes) was still possible instead of what is no longer possible/recommended as Máxima explained in their mea culpa video last year... It's not that hard to only invite 4 people at a day; she could still have received the same guests but spread out over a few days. Less risk because fewer people get together... Making it a 'garden event' in itself was a smart decision (although it sounds rather cold).

 

[Marengo]

The Prime Minister got some questions today from the press. Not about the new government accord but about the royal family and the 18th birthday party. See video:

https://www.ad.nl/royalty/premier-r...n-die-worstelen-met-de-coronaregels~ac35df33/

Reporter: How is it possible that things keep going wrong with the royal family?

Rutte: You may have read my letter, which followed questions of the Telegraaf, which they published yesterday. The King has told me that they tried very hard to do things in a proper way, but that in hindsight - and taking into account the advice not to receive more than 4 people per day- things did not go well.

Reporter: By now we can speak about a pattern. Does the royal family feel that they are above the people?

Rutte: No, not at all. Really not.

Reporter: You could think: they have such a big garden, it is not a problem.

Rutte: Yes, i don't know. The point is that the advice says: outside or inside on your own terrain, a maximum of four. And here there were more than four people.

[...]

Rutte: This royal family, the king, queen Maxima and others, are very aware that it is important that all of us try to follow the Covid rules in The Netherlands. They did take all kinds of pre-cautions. But on this one point - which is also important, the four people is also an urgent advice, it did not go well. And that is recognised by the King.

Reporter: Yes, because the whole of the Netherlands now may think: if they can do it, I can do it as well.

Rutte: No, I do not believe that. We are all human... we all make mistakes.

Reporter: Why is it possible for othe royal families to do this normally and is it impossible here?

Rutte: There are examples from all over the world where sometimes and with the best of intentions things just go wrong. It is not a Dutch problem.

Reporter: But a pattern becomes worrisome?

Rutte: No, those words are too heavy. Really.

Reporter: How many were there exactly? 21? Or...?

Rutte: I do not know exactly but apparently it concerned a maximum of 21 people, but I wasn't there myself...

----
It seems it was not the King who told the PM about the matter voluntarily. It was the PM who had to ask for clarification after he received questions from the Telegraaf.

And typical Rutte - he hates to tie himself to numbers as that makes it easy for others to attack him if things turn out differently. He does the same here by not giving an answer about how many people were there. The Telegraaf speaks of 100 and the RVD speaks about 21 invited guests - but that begs the question if there were uninvited ones.

And despite the ministerial responsibility the PM knows where to put in a remark so he can distance himself from the mess: 'I wasn't there'..., 'apparently' ... the fox. With friends like these the RF needs no enemies.

 

[Prinsara]

I wonder if Amalia will have to make an apology this time? Her parents have probably used up their credibility on the topic.

 

[An Ard Ri]

The Prime Minister got some questions today from the press. Not about the new government accord but about the royal family and the 18th birthday party. See video:

https://www.ad.nl/royalty/premier-r...n-die-worstelen-met-de-coronaregels~ac35df33/

Reporter: How is it possible that things keep going wrong with the royal family?
Rutte: You may have read my letter, which followedquestions of the Telegraaf, which they published yesterday. The King has told me that they tried very hard to do things in a proper way, but that in hindsight - and taking into account the advice not to receive more than 4 people per day- things did not go well.

Reporter: By now we can speak about a pattern. Does the royal family feel that they are above the people?

Rutte: No, not at all. Really not.

Reporter: You could think: they have such a big garden, it is not a problem.

Rutte: Yes, i don't know. The point is that the advice says: outside or inside on your own terrain, a maximum of four. And here there were more than four people.

[...]

Rutte: This royal family, the king, queen Maxima and others, are very aware that it is important that all of us try to follow the Covid rules in The Netherlands. They did take all kinds of pre-cautions. But on this one point - which is also important, the four people is also an urgent advice, it did not go well. And that is recognised by the King.

Reporter: Yes, because the whole of the Netherlands now may think: if they can do it, I can do it as well.

Rutte: No, I do not believe that. We are all human... we all make mistakes.

Reporter: Why is it possible for othe royal families to do this normally and is it impossible here?

Rutte: There are examples from all over the world where sometimes and with the best of intentions things just go wrong. It is not a Dutch problem.

Reporter: But a pattern becomes worrisome?

Rutte: No, those words are too heavy. Really.

Reporter: How many were there exactly? 21? Or...?

Rutte: I do not know exactly but apparently it concerned a maximum of 21 people, but I wasn't there myself...

----
It seems it was not the King who told the PM about the matter voluntarily. It was the PM who had to ask for clarification after he recevied questions of the Telegraaf.

I think this could could well go on as it seems the gloves are off where the Dutch RF are concerned.

Just on the Worldwide BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59681409

This time last week it was all complimentary towards the Dutch RF.

 

[maria-olivia]

A king who publicly says :"bij nader gezien niet goed was om dit zo te organiseren " is a King who is badly advised or did not ask an advise .

 

[Marengo]

I doubt very much that advisors did not see this coming. Others did. When Sandra Schuurhof of SBS asked Queen Máxima if they were going to celebrate the birthday and the Queen responded that they were still thinking what to do, considering the COVID rules. Schuurhof said on SBS that for a moment she wondered: they wouldn't be so silly as to....' . I saw the question on television too and I wondered the same & I am sure so did many others. And like Schuurhof I concluded that it was unlikely that they would be so silly. But advisors can advise, it is the King who decides what advise to follow. At least, as long as the prime minister allows him that freedom.

But here we are. The way things are going the royal family is its own biggest enemy, they ruined all the positive PR of the last week and Amalia's coming of age will now be linked to an incident for the next decades.

On its own the issue is not a problem for most but by now it is a pattern. And there is a strong feeling of 'here we go again'. In various news programmes -even on the respectable state channel NOS- journalists are wondering in very covered terms how it is possible that this keeps happening again and again. And why it is such an apparent mess at the court and why the public antenna is lacking.

In the Flemish newspaper 'De Standaard' the Dutch journalist Petra de Koning of the (Dutch) posh newspaper NRC writes that the politicians in The Hague could only dream of a king like Philipe, who does not do any damage. Political veteran Frits Wester of RTL even said that it was time for the Prime Minister to intervene more decisively.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

These clumsy gaffes by WA & M & A are what they are. Unprecise, uncareful, unprofessional but in the end it is about Covid rules which are heavily contested and the reactions in (social) media are relatively mild, compared with the first gaffe (Greece). Back then the Pandemic was new, the lock-down a phenomenon never experienced since WWII, now everyone is sick of the Pandemic and many realize: it is all too human, at least they tried compromise to held it outside in the park with Covid checks.

Coming week this is old news again.