Willem-Alexander, Máxima and Family, General News Part 3 (May 2017-Aug 2020)

[Duc_et_Pair]

The Christmas break was week 52 and week 1. A holiday in Argentina is not so strange. Máxima's mother and the princesses' grandmother, who recently lost her husband and her youngest daughter, lives there. The article mentions 22 December, which was in the school break indeed:

https://www.google.nl/amp/www.diario...gostura?espv=1

[Somebody]

Originally Posted by Duc_et_Pair

The Christmas break was week 52 and week 1. A holiday in Argentina is not so strange. Máxima's mother and the princesses' grandmother, who recently lost her husband and her youngest daughter, lives there. The article mentions 22 December, which was in the school break indeed:

https://www.google.nl/amp/www.diario...gostura?espv=1

Of course a holiday in Argentina is perfectly normal (they go to Argentina every other year for Christmas) but should take place during school breaks. Máxima's mother is not limited to school breaks, so if the family couldn't travel to Argentina during the school break because of their move, she could have come over to the Netherlands.

The article does actually mention that the dinner took placd on Wednesday (so Januaey 9) at the end of the president's holidays which started on December 22. So, the princesses -if indeed present- will most likely have missed a full week of school.

[Duc_et_Pair]

Just saw the weekly royalty program "Blauw Bloed" and the attendance of the princesses was not confirmed. They mentioned their school too. Only the royal couple was more or less confirmed as guests of President and Mrs Macri "according Argentine media".

[ladongas]

Originally Posted by Somebody

Hmm, a public outcry in this case is justified imo.
...
And it's not the first time that they do so although the last time they took their daughters out of school outside of school breaks (without a justified reason) was many years ago.

Many would consider visiting a widowed grandmother (who lives half a world away and who has endured the death of both her husband and her daughter within the last year)...a justified reason.

It’s hard to imagine a huge public outcry over this. Sometimes you have to do what’s right for your family regardless of what others think or say.

And apparently permission may be granted once per school year for exceptional circumstances. This would seem to qualify.

[Somebody]

Originally Posted by ladongas

Many would consider visiting a widowed grandmother (who lives half a world away and who has endured the death of both her husband and her daughter within the last year)...a justified reason.

It’s hard to imagine a huge public outcry over this. Sometimes you have to do what’s right for your family regardless of what others think or say.

And apparently permission may be granted once per school year for exceptional circumstances. This would seem to qualify.

From my view, it's pretty simple. It is against the law to not attend school when of a certain age. And no, according to the Dutch law (leerplichtwet) this case is not within the 'circumstances' that would qualify for an exception regarding to 'going on holiday outside of school breaks'. They are especially strict regarding the days before or after school breaks to make sure parents don't extend holidays (which mainly used to happen to avoid the traffic). The only qualifying reason would be if they were not able to go on holiday any other time of the year because their parents would be working all school breaks. That is clearly not the case. They go on holiday extensively throughout the year. Most likely they will be on ski holiday next month, so they could have used that week to go to Argentina instead.

The second reason is 'special occasion' this has been interpreted to refer to family occasions such as weddings and funerals (for which they indeed were given days off) when their grandfather passed away and last year when their aunt had died. Visiting your grandmother in the new year cannot be considered a 'special occasion'.

They had 2 weeks holiday break, so should have used that time to visit their grandmother if that was their priority (which I would fully understand). If other reasons (such as a move) prevented that, their grandmother could easily have come over to the Netherlands to visit them as she has done many times in the past.

So, IF (and it seems that although Argentinian media report it, it is still up in the air) the princesses missed a week of school that would be against the law. I assume the king and queen did discuss it with the schools' directors - in which case the directors of the two schools would have granted permission but unjustifiable. We'll have to see whether the municipal attendance officers will look into this issue (seems unlikely given that it pertains to the king and queen).

I might sound harsh but my stance is that the Dutch royal family should be held to the exact same standards as other Dutch families with children of school age. In the past they have taken liberty with these rules mostly when the girls were much younger (but old enough that this law would apply to them; which is from the month starting after their 5th birthday, although almost all children start school at 4).

[Duc_et_Pair]

But it still not clear if the princesses were in Argentina, last week. No any Dutch royal correspondent has confirmed it. Not Marc van der Linden from Royalty Online, not Justine Marcella from Vorsten Royale, not Jeroen Snel from Blauw Bloed, not Piet van Asseldonk from NOS.nl, not Peter van de Vorst from RTL, not Evert Santegoeds from SBS, also not in their Twitter feeds.

[lucien]

Originally Posted by Duc_et_Pair

The royals can be in Dubai today, in Montreal tomorrow and in Tokyo the day after. What is a trip from Maastricht to Amsterdam for us, that is a trip from The Hague to Athens for them.

Whether the three princesses were in Argentina or not, I am sure the parents have carefully checked everything with the schools. A public outcry about assumed privileged holidays for the princesses is the last thing they want.

Indeed!And a public outcry??Oh really?The only "public outcry"would be here on this forum by some.But no worries,they were in school and this weekend and start of the coming week they all unpack boxes and what not as they've moved into Huis ten Bosch Palace only now.Gracias.

Btw,never believe Argentinian "press"just rags even worse then the Brits,nada mas.

[ladongas]

And just what might the penalty be for disobeying these standards? (I have read that there are fines assessed on UK families under similar circumstances, and these can be substantial.)

And I think the term is “justified reason” rather than “exceptional circumstances”, although the terms are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

[lucien]

Originally Posted by ladongas

And just what might the penalty be for disobeying these standards? (I have read that there are fines assessed on UK families under similar circumstances, and these can be substantial.)

And I think the term is “justified reason” rather than “exceptional circumstances”, although the terms are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Read my post above please.The girls were in school.

And yes,the fines are / can be considerable,100 euro (- at least- ) per child per day.

[ladongas]

Originally Posted by lucien

Read my post above please.The girls were in school.

And yes,the fines are / can be considerable,100 euro (- at least- ) per child per day.

Thanks; I assumed that the Princesses were in compliance one way or another!

[Lee-Z]

As the girls were in school then there is no issue anyway, but for the non-dutch people on these forums who are interested in the topic, this is the official description from the dutch governmental website:

https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwe...vakantie-nemen

google translated

[Marengo]

Posts about the move to Huis ten Bosch palace have been moved to this thread:
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums...ml#post2187829

[Somebody]

Originally Posted by lucien

Indeed!And a public outcry??Oh really?The only "public outcry"would be here on this forum by some.But no worries,they were in school and this weekend and start of the coming week they all unpack boxes and what not as they've moved into Huis ten Bosch Palace only now.Gracias.

Btw,never believe Argentinian "press"just rags even worse then the Brits,nada mas.

You saying so doesn't make it true. Nonetheless, I hope that they indeed were in school. Yet, something different was suggested and if true (which is not completely out of character) that would have been a clear case of class justice - as it was in the past when the princesses were taken out of school to attend the Olympics in Vancouver or to go on ski holiday for more than 1 week.

[eya]

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima officially register with the county of The Hague and are now with their daughters officially residents of The Hague

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsn1Fxbn6i6/

[polyesco]

The note and a few more pictures on the official move
https://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/actuee...huis-ten-bosch

[Marengo]

Isn't social media wonderful? I see that somebody posted a death threat to Pauline Krikke (mayor of The Hague, smiling lady behind the couple) on the instagram post of the royal house.

[Muhler]

And it's still there.

Odd, don't they moderate the comments? This one is by any normal standard pretty unacceptable!

[HereditaryPrincess]

Interesting to hear of the move.
I hope the comment will be deleted soon. I'm surprised they don't have some sort of bot that moderates such violent and unnecessary comments.

[Marengo]

Originally Posted by Muhler

And it's still there.

Odd, don't they moderate the comments? This one is by any normal standard pretty unacceptable!

It seems to be removed now. Also gone is a comment about how 65 million euros for a house is a bit much.

I never knew that you could remove comments on instagram and for years I wondered why the comments were always only positive. But now I know, finally .

[Muhler]

Magic.
What do you think royals use this for?