King Philippe, Queen Mathilde and Family, General News 3, Dec 2023 -

[iceflower]

The Palace posted the photos as well this morning, including a lovely caption:

The King and Queen celebrate their silver wedding anniversary today. 25 years of a happy marriage. And still counting!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1864219623417151561

 

[Linda_26]

A look back at King Philippe's travels this year, in an article by Wim Dehandschutter:

Op werkreis naar Namibië of naar familiefeest in Frankrijk: 9 reizen voor Filip, zeker 40 vluchten in 2024


The King went abroad using a military plane 9 times (around 40 flights in total): three times for official duties, the others for private travels. Aside from stays at the family's holiday home in the Île d'Yeu in France, there were private trips to Spain (hiking part of the Santiago Trail in the Easter holidays, and visiting Emmanuel at his football academy in Zaragoza in November), South France (in the weekend 28/30 June, for the family celebration of Albert and Paola's 65th wedding anniversary in Grasse) and Italy (Autumn holidays in Sicily).

 

[tommy100]

That sounds pretty reasonable - if he has to use the military plane for travel for security reasons they don't seem to be abusing the privilege. It is certainly less than other monarchs seem to use government planes!

 

[Somebody]

Many royal families (are allowed to) make use of non-government planes for private travel, so I think most royal families of a small country make less than 40 flights in a government plane a year.

 

[tommy100]

Yes, many monarchs can travel by scheduled air. But looking at the Dutch RF for example I would say the Belgian monarch is travelling less. Likewise here in the UK the King uses RAF jets to travel to Scotland each time he goes, with fairly frequent return trips in between for various official events. I don’t think Philippe’s is the least nor the most use.

 

[Somebody]

Yes, many monarchs can travel by scheduled air. But looking at the Dutch RF for example I would say the Belgian monarch is travelling less. Likewise here in the UK the King uses RAF jets to travel to Scotland each time he goes, with fairly frequent return trips in between for various official events. I don’t think Philippe’s is the least nor the most use.

The previous statement was about other royal families traveling more in 'government planes'. I agree that the British use the government planes (or other air travel) quite often (the country is also a bit larger than Belgium), however, the Dutch for example often fly commercially (while for some reason the Belgian king is supposed to use a military plane?!), so, I doubt they fly more often by government plane.

Nonetheless, the Belgian king keeps his personal air travel rather limited compared to many other royals (but I assume 4 holidays + 2 (3) family-related trips abroad still far exceeds the average number of foreign holidays/trips by most Belgian families):
- 2x holiday in France
- 1x holiday in Spain
- 1x holiday in Italy
- 1x anniversary celebration in France
- 1x visit to their son in Spain
They were in the UK for Elisabeth's graduation but I assume they traveled by train as that trip isn't on the list.

 

[tommy100]

I thought the Dutch King wasn’t allowed to use scheduled flights as well?

 

[Somebody]

I thought the Dutch King wasn’t allowed to use scheduled flights as well?

To avoid further derailing this thread about Philippe and Mathilde, I answered in this thread about Willem-Alexander and Máxima

 

[Adda]

On the occasion of her 52nd birthday, two beautiful -and wonderfully relaxed- new photos of Queen Mathilde have been released.

Photo 1
Photo 2

 

[iceflower]

The birthday post shared by the Palace:

The Queen turns 52 today. Thank you for your warm birthday wishes in these winter times!

Belgian Royal Palace on Instagram: "De Koningin wordt vandaag 52. Bedankt voor jullie warme verjaardagwensen in deze winterse tijden! 🎉 ————— La Reine fête ses 52 ans aujourd'hui. Merci pour vos vœux chaleureux en cette période hivernale! 🎉 ————— Die

1,643 likes, 47 comments - belgianroyalpalace on January 19, 2025: "De Koningin wordt vandaag 52. Bedankt voor jullie warme verjaardagwensen in deze winterse tijden! 🎉 ————— La Reine fête ses 52 ans aujourd'hui. Merci pour vos vœux chaleureux en cette période hivernale! 🎉 ————— Die Königin...

www.instagram.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/1881234809953087912

 

[An Ard Ri]

A wonderful winter wonderland photograph to mark the queens birthday!

 

[victor1319]

King Philippe inbetween. The German economical publication "Wirtschaftswoche" reports.
WirtschaftsWoche

So there is money of the Russian Federation frozen in Belgium. The hefty sum of 210 billion €uro, which are formally owned by the Russian central bank.

Ukraine demands this money to bolster it's fight against Russia. Others like the German finance minister are against it and want it to continued to be frozen in Belgium. Now the Hungarian prime minister; Orban, wants the sanctions over this money to end and all of it given back to Russia.

If the now President of the United States of America, Trump, is to lift some sactions against Russia, then Orban demands this to happen immediatly.

And this is where the Belgian Monarch cames into play: He can block any sending of money from Belgium, because there is a law from 1944 still in effect, which allows him to do so. He has the last say!

One wonders, what he will do as an apolitical Head of State... Let us hope, there is no quarrel in the EU in the future over this money! Poor King Philippe!

 

[Hannelore]

King Philippe isn't apolitical. He can't take any decisions without the backing of his government. Likewise, federal government can't pass or alter laws without Philippe's consent, ie signature.

 

[hereditarytitles]

Let us hope, there is no quarrel in the EU in the future over this money! Poor King Philippe!

Interesting news. Unfortunately I couldn't read the article because of a paywall. There could be controversy within the EU, as we can already see with Orban. I trust that King Philippe and the Belgian government will resolve this in unison.I

 

[victor1319]

King Philippe isn't apolitical. He can't take any decisions without the backing of his government.

Well, yeah, normally! But the point here is, because of this law from 1944, it is in his hands alone! We will see: Is in doubt the Belgium government more important to the King then the eventual future majority of the European Union? Or will the EU enlist the King to stop the European friends of Russia?

Interesting news. Unfortunately I couldn't read the article because of a paywall.

Ahh, that is bad! Yesterday in was not behing a paywall, I checked.

Here is one with a slightly different tenor from "Fortune".
EU mulls 81-year-old decree signed by king of Belgium to block veto on Russia sanctions