Jubilant Dutch republicans believe their day is finally here. Counterintuitively, they plan a special party next week to mark the annual King’s Day celebrations – on the grounds that, almost incredibly, there’s no longer a thumping majority in favour of succession to the throne.
Republicans here are long used to being ignored, particularly during the reign of King Willem-Alexander's mother, Queen Beatrix, whose popular touch was legendary, and are not given to unrealistic expectations. They're content to make their egalitarian point and let history take its course.
All that's about to change, however. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima plan to spend their big day – Wednesday, April 27th – in Maastricht, meeting the throngs who will undoubtedly turn out for the first time since the pandemic, and they'll find a new spring in the dissenters' step.
“Yes, I’m sure the king and queen are going to see us there,” nods Floris Müller emphatically. “This is a special occasion: we’re going to have anti-monarchy T-shirts, banners, balloons, all the usual paraphernalia – but particularly lots of big inflatable hands waving bye-bye to ‘Willem the Last’.
The tipping point, according to Müller and his comrades in the pressure group, Republic, was an Ipsos poll in December 2020, which showed that support for, and trust in, Willem-Alexander had taken a dive during the previous year – on a scale that would have been inconceivable in Beatrix's day.
Damning figures
It wasn’t just to republican eyes that the figures looked damning. Analysts surmised, quite reasonably, that the degree to which the fabulously wealthy were inevitably out of touch with the less well-off had been hugely magnified by economic and personal fears related to coronavirus.
Hence the now-infamous series of royal pandemic gaffes: showing off a new €2 million speedboat, failing to wear masks or observe social distancing in a busy Greek holiday restaurant, taking their three daughters back to their Greek retreat when the advice was not to travel abroad.
And last but certainly not least, was the bright idea of holding a birthday party for the heir, Princess Amalia, and 21 friends, to mark her coming of age – while gatherings in commoner households were restricted to four and many who broke that rule were summarily fined.
Despite the clear regard in which the royals are held by the Dutch people in general, the public didn’t hold back when responding to the Ipsos pollsters – with an almost audible “ouch” in response from within the palace walls.
According to each of the key metrics for royal endeavour the king was at the back of the class.
Asked if they had confidence in Willem-Alexander, just 47 per cent answered “yes” in December, compared with 76 per cent the previous April.
And asked if they were “dissatisfied“ or “very dissatisfied” with the monarch’s job performance, 14 per cent said “yes” – as against an almost negligible 3 per cent in the spring.
‘Medieval idea’
“We are not against Willem-Alexander as an individual,” says Müller. “We’re just against the medieval idea of the monarchy. I don’t think there is any coming back from those figures. Ordinary people, especially youngsters, are realising the royals know absolutely nothing about them.”
What the royals will remember all too well, however, is that on the day of Willem-Alexander’s inauguration at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam on April 30th, 2013, two republican protesters – two, not 22 – were arrested for peacefully carrying placards mildly expressing their displeasure.
And before you think to yourself, "This is the Netherlands, it can't have happened like that", well indeed it did.
That’s what happens to those to rub against the grain when an entire country gets carried away: overreaction.
The good news is that the police apologised within 24 hours and confirmed that individuals had been entitled to protest. The mayor of Amsterdam apologised as well, saying, “the right to demonstrate and freedom of speech are constitutional rights. When something goes wrong, it hurts us all.”
The mayor was speaking when he presented medals to all those who helped make the inauguration of the new king a success – including a team of council workers who had removed hundreds of bikes from outside the church.
So there’s form between the two sides, republicans and royals. On the other hand, even if things get a tad shouty next week, at least Floris Müller’s head is safe. Unless someone overreacts.
