Dutch royal family out of touch with reality

A recently approved salary increase for the Dutch royal family has come under attack. Pressure is mounting on the House of Orange-Nassau following a tax avoidance scandal involving letterbox companies and the controversial construction of a luxury holiday complex in Mozambique came to light. The left-liberal daily De Volkskrant writes: "If they are allowed to do things their own divine way they will build more holiday homes in tax havens and then try to get another tax-free salary increase out of the prime minister in parliament. … They're reprimanded for the moral implications of having a capital fund on the Canary Islands and what do they do? They found another fund. They are genuinely convinced that they can help an extremely poor country by building a decadent and completely sealed-off complex out of thin air and shooting at the locals. It is a combination of boundless arrogance and boundless naivety that produces a peculiar brand of unworldliness only found in the loftiest aristocratic circles."

» full article (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Netherlands
All available articles from » Bert Wagendorp

» To the complete press review of Monday, September 21, 2009