Scheveningen, Kurhaus September 25 2020, Photo of this specific exhibition of it in the ‘Kurhaus’ by the Old Dutch Painter.
The title of this blogpost is the caption beside those photos … The question mark is added by me, of course.
When you look for a possible original source of this photo of the Dutch king Alexander with Putin, one of the first suggestions from Google Lens is a relation with drinking games: an almost perfect illustration of how little the Dutch look up to the monarchy and more especially to this first king ‘ruling’ this country since 1890. Between 1890 and 2013 the Dutch were ruled by queens. This Alexander is nicknamed ‘Prins Pils‘, literally ‘Prince Pilsner‘.
Lucky TV
Maybe the most remarkable aspect of the extent of mockery of the Dutch royals in the aforementioned series is that it is broadcasted by a organization that tradtionally is linked to the Social Democrats. Nowadays this link is a little bit looser. All Dutch public broadcasters are financed by taxpayers and like almost all of them this one is strongly opposed to serious political opposition.
This king is married to a woman named Zorregieta: yes, a daughter of the infamous Jorge Zorregieta, supporter of the Videla-coup in Agentina. This woman is not interested in Dutch politics but deeply involved in globalist politics.
I estimate that more than 95% of the adult Dutch population thinks that this lady is more ambitious and bold than her husband.
However, possibly Alexander is actually more ambitious and bold than his male predecessor Wilhelm III was. That guy actually doubted if he wanted to become king because Dutch politics shortly before the start of his term had seriously diminished the power of the monarchy. Just like many other European countries 1848 was a special year for The Netherlands too…
Formally, the political role of the monarch has been further reduced in the 21st century. Since 2012, he or she no longer has a function in the formation of a new cabinet (a process that in the history of the Netherlands always meant negotiations between multiple political parties. Nowadays, in practice, this even stands for negotiations between at least 4 parties!)
Just as well, the preamble to every new law or legislative amendment still states that the king has decided something and even suggests that he (or she) is divinely inspired in the process…
Ukraine
The photo at the top is from a visit of Putin in 2014. Thus some two years before the Dutch voted massively against a European Union Association Agreement in an advisory referendum. Long time prime minister Mark Rutte then neglected the law on advisory referendums by not choosing between the just two possibilities for the government with such a result. Soon after that the advisory referendum was removed from the law… (More about how this removal was initiated here).
William Alexander’s lack of wisdom -to spare him via understatement- was painfully displayed in 2022.
Most remarkable about it was not what exactly he criticized Putin for, but the reason for doing so: his dramatically declining popularity rating!
Nobody wants to end like Putin, Dutch king says.Despite acceding to the throne with a sky-high popularity rating back in 2013, confidence in Willem-Alexander took a hit after criticisms over his infrequent public remarks during the initial deadly wave of COVID-19, and outrage over the royal family’s trip to Greece amid pandemic restrictions in 2020.
Scheveningen
I came across the photo series when I stayed for a few days at the quite famous hotel “Kurhaus” in 2021. I have fond memories of that mini vacation. Not least because the photos I took then inspired me to paint a triptych of the so called ‘Pier’.
Link to a short video about varnishing the tryptich.