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Until now, it has always been assumed that the King and Queen returned with their three daughters from their Greek holiday destination last Saturday. The monarch and princess did not mention a partial return of the family in their statement last Friday evening. “We will cut short our vacation,” the couple said at the time. This turns out to be only part of the family.
The images of the rapid return to the palace on Saturday evening showed the king and queen as well as a princess. They all sat on the side of where the photographers and cameramen stood. Then it became apparent that the king was not wearing a face mask or a seat belt. As a result, there was little eye for who else was in the blinded van.
According to the Government Information Service, no tickets were available for the whole family.
King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and Princess Arianne.
Ⓒ Dutch Height / ANP
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Saturday was consciously chosen to let the two princesses fly on Tuesday. It’s not like the plane was full on previous days.
Fiasco
The latest revelation is an addition to the royal debacle surrounding the holiday of the House of Orange. Last Friday panic arose in the cabinet when it appeared that the king was on his way to Greece, while ministers had called on the population to spend the autumn holidays at home as much as possible.
Deputy Prime Minister Hugo de Jonge and the responsible spokesman for the RVD pretended not to know about a royal holiday. In reality, the king’s intention to take a trip to sunny Greece was well known to the RVD at that time. The service discussed this with De Jonge prior to the press conference, following a tweet about the government aircraft, which was ready for departure. It would not be known at the time whether the king would actually go.
House of Representatives
After it turned out that the king had indeed left, there was a lot of commotion about the trip, both among the population and in the Lower House. The government was also annoyed by the holiday in corona time. Shocked by the anger in the Netherlands, the King and Queen declared that they were returning because of the discussion about their holiday. At no point did they show that they regretted their decision to go on vacation.
King Willem-Alexander and Princess Amalia in archive image.
Ⓒ ANP / HH
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After the chaos, the prime minister had to go through the dust because he is ministerially responsible for the king’s comings and goings. He stated that he had made an error of judgment.
Until tonight, the RVD was silent about the fact that the termination of the holiday at that time only applied to king, queen and a princess. The fact that the news became known because fellow passengers recognized the princesses, suggests that they did not intend to come out with this themselves. Even now, surprise and amazement can be heard in cabinet circles about the news.
Reportedly, a solid evaluation of the holiday drama for those involved will follow in The Hague. The question is whether the palace is also involved in this.
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