‘King’s hopeful and alarming speech shakes the Dutch up’

Earlier this week, on Monday, Prime Minister Mark Rutte addressed the people. The difference, according to Kysia Hekster, is that the speech was about policy and the king’s speech about feeling and emotion. “As befits a speech by a king in times of crisis.”

Exceptional speech

It is not often that the king addresses the people in a speech that has been inserted. The last time we saw Willem-Alexander on television in this way was after the disaster with flight MH17 in 2014. Before that, it was then Queen Beatrix, after the attack on Queen’s Day in Apeldoorn in 2009.

For the speech we need to go much further back in time: after the Flood of 1953. Then Queen Juliana addressed the Netherlands by radio and put on her rain boots to visit the disaster area. However rare, according to Hekster, it was to be expected that there would be a speech. This also happened recently in Norway, Belgium and Denmark.

Milou Dijkman sees major differences between the heads of state. The Queen of Denmark was very strict and said: keep a meter and a half away. Spanish King Felipe did things differently. He was full of passion and said: we will not get under it. “You see the cultural differences. In my opinion, Willem-Alexander has found a good middle ground between a serious, involved story and his role as king: by being above the parties.”

We don’t drop anyone

Experts quickly agree on the strongest part of the speech. Almost all media, including the NOS, sent this sentence as a push message: We can’t stop the corona virus, but the loneliness virus can. What makes this such a strong statement? Dijkman: “It is the contradiction in that sense that works. As a speech writer you take advantage of this. But also because of the appeal that the king makes with this. He says with this: we will not drop anyone.”

Watch the King’s speech here:

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