QUEEN BEATRIX of the Netherlands rarely cites Queen Victoria, with whom she has little in common. But just now she could be forgiven for quoting “we are not amused”, principally by the behaviour of her niece, Princess Margarita de Bourbon-Parma, and her husband, Edwin de Roy van Zuydewijn. In the most unlikely scandal to envelop her “bicycle monarchy” for decades, she may even find herself being called to court to answer a case brought by the Princess and her husband alleging that the Queen deliberately sought to damage de Roy van Zuydewijn’s recruitment business.
Although the pair are not technically part of the Dutch Royal Family — Princess Margarita’s mother, Princess Irene, who is the Queen’s sister, lost her royal status when she married without seeking permission from the Dutch parliament — the court case is the culmination of an embarrassing spat that has now entered the political arena, too.
Princess Margarita and her husband have made public a series of allegations, including that the Queen is overly fond of wine; that the Queen’s father, the 91-year-old Prince Bernhard, had an affair with his secretary; that the Queen’s second son, the 34-year old Prince Johan Friso, surreptitously gives commoners the finger; and that the Queen not only sought to damage de Roy van Zuydewijn’s business, but also had him investigated by the Dutch equivalent of MI5. The couple are suing the royal household over the allegation about de Roy van Zuydewijn’s business, and a hearing is due later this month. Meanwhile, the scandal has embroiled the Dutch Prime Minister, Jan-Peter Balkenende, and has complicated current negotiations to form a new government. The Dutch parliament has even had to issue new legislation to cope with the scandal. A former Prime Minister, Wim Kok, has also been a target of legal action by the Princess.
“It is most unusual for the royal household to wash its dirty linen in public; normally the Queen keeps careful control over it,” says Hein Bruins, an expert on European nobility, in Amsterdam. “Nothing like this has happened before; the Dutch royals usually appear in the press only when dedicating public works or taking positions on politically correct issues. The only previous scandal to touch the household was in 1974, when it was alleged that Prince Bernhard took bribes from Lockheed.”
How did it all start? That there was tension between the royal household and the couple was well known. The pair failed to show up at the wedding of the Queen’s youngest son, Prince Constantijn, in 2001, nor were they invited to the wedding last year of Crown Prince WillemAlexander and Máxima Zorreguieta. But nothing specific was aired in public until last February, when Princess Margarita and de Roy van Zuydewijn gave an interview to the Dutch magazine HP/De Tijd, in which the Princess portrayed the Queen as a tyrant who had decreed that her husband was unsuitable and should be deemed an untouchable.
Princess Margarita reminded the public that when the couple married in France in 2001, few members of the Dutch Royal Family turned up. They claim that whenever they have attended family gatherings since then, they have been ignored, insulted and ostracised. De Roy van Zuydewijn told how he was subjected to “psychological terror” around the royal dinner table during an inquisition about his business background. At one royal wedding the Queen personally ordered that he be removed from the group photograph. At one party they had attended, on the Queen’s birthday, the monarch was slumped in a chair asleep after drinking several glasses of wine, according to the interview.
But more disturbing disclosures also emerged. The couple claimed that their home in Amsterdam was bugged and that de Roy van Zuydewijn’s mail was intercepted by the intelligence service. Worst of all, according to the interview, was the damage to de Roy van Zuydewijn’s company, the Hague-based Fincentives BV, which specialises in personnel work. De Roy van Zuydewijn claimed to have lost millions of euros in contracts because of pressure from the Queen. He claims that companies that were on the brink of signing contracts with Fincentives mysteriously pulled out at the last minute.
In a rare press conference, Queen Beatrix replied to the allegations in HP/De Tijd, saying “we do not recognise ourselves in this article”.
Princess Margarita hit back in early March with an appearance on the Dutch evening TV talk show Nova. After repeating most of the previous allegations, the Princess said of the Royal Family: “It’s important that people know who these people are. They abuse their power.”
After this interview, a Rotterdam-based law firm began preparing a €65 million (£46 million) lawsuit against the royal household. And de Roy van Zuydewijn went public with threats of “more cluster-bomb interviews to come”.
It was during this interview that the Princess gave more details about her complaints of the secret service investigation. The AIVD (the Dutch MI5) did in fact make an investigation of de Roy van Zuydwijn before his marriage to the Princess in 2000. The investigation included obtaining a dossier on him from the Amsterdam social services administration, and such dossiers are supposed to remain confidential.
That was the cue for parliament to get involved. Balkenende expressed his regret about the dispute, and said he hoped it would stop. He confirmed the AIVD investigation (but not the bugging), including the use of the social services dossier. But he insisted that the secret service routinely investigated anyone marrying into the Dutch Royal Family. The parliament that day ruled that, in future, any such investigations must be made known to the Dutch Cabinet, and the Cabinet sent a letter of apology to the couple. Balkenende separately said that there was a possibility of a prosecution against the couple, but none has transpired — the Princess is, in any case, immune from prosecution.
Now the couple are also suing Wim Kok, claiming that he should have stopped the AIVD investigation. Kok denies all knowledge of the matter. But the Opposition has seized on the issue, bitterly criticising Balkenende’s handling of the affair.
The scandal has complicated negotiations to form a new Balkenende-led government. In the Netherlands the Queen is responsible for appointing the officials who try to form a government — it is not done, as in other parliamentary democracies, by a member of the Cabinet. It cannot be easy for Balkenende to deal with these officials now that his relationship with the Royal House of Orange has been strained.
Surprisingly, Queen Beatrix’s popularity seems not to have been dented. She smiled at cheering crowds with her immediate family in the city of Deventer on her recent birthday, which is a national holiday here.
But the long-term damage to the image of the House of Orange may be more serious. Certainly, the Queen cannot be very much amused.
