Last month, some of us lucky to have a nice vacation but SM the King has been busy all the time and the rest of the Family Royal also. It is surprising how much new was made by Crown Princess Mathilde being interviewed about her efforts to be bilingual. I thought nothing about it was unusual but simply talking about it may be out of the ordinary. She said learning Dutch is very difficult (not many would argue that point who did not grow up speaking it) and that she knows she speaks it with a French accent and has to make an effort to speak it, hear it and converse in it to remain fluent. She also mentioned the children attending a Dutch language school. Back to the King though in December he named former European Affairs Minister Frans Timmermans a Grand Officer of the Crown of Belgium for his career in European cooperation and keeping good relations between Belgium and Nederlands. The Belgian ambassador to Nederlands presented him with his medal.
The story I missed that caused most upset for me was the NVA member Siegfried Bracke wrote on his blog a complaint that the King has too much power in the Belgian government. Of course that is totally outrageous as most media was at least honest enough to mention. The King has a very specific part to play and ministers may take or ignore his advice and on his own he has the power to do nothing. That is true but I also must say that for myself it would be better I think for the King to really have some power in government and be given more authority because the King seems the only person who does not put one community or one party or one ideology before the interests of the whole country. Some actions and statements of the King I have first disagreed with but I also do not see any major political figures who put the country first and only the King seems to really have any interest in that and has a self-interest in the unity of the country. For almost everyone else their self-interest is dis-unity and antagonism between the regions and communities.
