Queen of The Netherlands Abdicates

The Queen of The Netherlands, Queen Beatrix has announced today that she will abdicate the throne on April 30th in favour of her son Willem-Alexander. Her abdication marks the 200th anniversary of the monarchy of The Netherlands and the 75th Birthday of Queen Beatrix.



The Monarchy of The Netherlands is different to many other western monarchies. Queen Beatrix was highly involved in politics, helping her to become one of the most popular monarchs in the history of the Netherlands.

Queen Beatrix ascended the throne at the age of 42, succeeding her mother Queen Juliana. Her abdication ends more than 100 years of female rule in The Netherlands. Prince Alexander will be the first King of The Netherlands since 1890. The Prince and his wife, Princess Maxima, are very popular and are expected to do well. Nonetheless, with 3 very popular and successful Queens before him, Prince Wilhelm has some big shoes to fill.

The future celebrations will be overshadowed by fears for Prince Fiso's health, the younger brother of Wilhelm was seriously injured after an avalanche in Austria. He is still in a coma, and this has likely factored into his mothers decision to abdicate.

This represents a new generation of royals and citizens ascending to the throne of The Netherlands. It further shows that monarchies remain relevant, and important to their people and to their countries. The survival of monarchies in modern times, largely depends on the personality and popularity of the monarch. Lack of democracy, Human Rights violations, or Political instability are not often found in Western monarchies, and certainly not due to actions taken by the monarch. Many monarchies make the top ten on the Democracy Index, with Norway and Sweden vying for first place.

At the very least, it seems unlikely that the monarchy of The Netherlands, will be going anywhere any time soon.

Dutch monarchy seems so different from the Spanish one... Right now, if "our" king abdicated Spain would crumble. I mean, faster than it is doing now.

Is he highly involved in political affairs? Or do you think it would crumble because he is a unifying figure for the nation?

The unifying thingy.

He won't definetely keep Spain united, even living forever, but at least makes things smoother and moderate.

He is also involved in Foreign Affaris, and I have to admit he's good at it, even though I'm a republican myself. His son could be as good in that part of the job, but his popularity is not quite the same. And will never be, even if Spanish media tell you otherwise.

We accepted the current King and Consitution because the alternative was fascist dictatorship, in the first place. So we don't owe anything to the Prince. I'd say he secretly knows the game is over. And nationalist parties govern the autonomous regions of Catalonia, Basque Country and the Canary Islands. Only a different, multi-national, open minded Spain could keep us united. Or so I think,.

Interesting perspective. I thought that Spain had the opportunity to vote via referendum between the monarchy and a democratic republic? I certainly got the feeling when I visited Spain, that the King was well respected.

My Great Grandmother used to have a painting of King George VI on her wall, and I recall asking her about it. She told me that he was the greatest, and that when he died, people were crying, even in the city streets. The future uncertain, particularly if his young daughter could lead like he did. I think what happens, is that when the Monarchy changes hands, it becomes more about renewal, and a new generation taking power. IT becomes about, giving the new person a go. People get caught up in the coronation, and perhaps a marriage, and maybe even the children that follow. Monarchies have the ability to unify a nation, and restore hope where it is lost, and provide something to look forward to. I wouldn't write the Prince off yet, its hard to know what might happen tomorrow, and certainly unclear how popular he will be when he eventually is King.

By Multinational, do you mean like a commonwealth? Separate nations united under a federal-type government?

You problably know some or much about what I'm telling you now, but these are my views about it.

Spain has had two republics so far. The first one came the same way almost everything happens in Spain: because there was no other solution. And the second one was chosen in a referendum in 1931. Then Franco messed things up, overthrew the legitimate Republic and named our current King as his succesor. When Franco died, after 40 years of fascist dictatorship, the Constitution was redacted and voted on referendum. Should we say "no" to it, the old military, religious, fascist regime would remain in power.

So, we "the people" voted for the Constitution that grants the King his powers. For common sense. A few years later, military tried to coup again and the King is said to keep things under Constitutional democratic order (this is somewhat disputed in the later years, but still widely believed).

You're probably right about the Prince, once he is crowned things could change. Still I think he won't reign too much time, he should be a lot braver than said Constitution would let him. And of course a lot of people will cry when King Juan Carlos the elephant killer dies.

Also the figure of Spanish Monarchy is not like that of the British. British Monarchs reign over territories and have no problem at all to recognise their national rights, cultures, societies and economic issues and differences. At least, it seems like that today. In Spain, however, ever since Phillip V every territory under the (then newly created) Spanish Crown was supposed to be Spain. Castilian culture was imposed over every other culture and not only Catalonian or Canarian, but also Puerto Rican, Cuban, Philipino, etc. (as an example, what we know now as "Spanish language" was always called Castilian language) were supposed to be Spain, plain and simple. We, Canarian, lost our language in XVIII century, we were sold as slaves in Spain and were forced (we called that "blood tax" in the islands) to emigrate for repopulation. So we found San Antonio of Texas among lots of places all over America.

The Crown is the only true unifying institution (after the Inquisition was abolished) for Spain, and never understood its nature, and has never feel any kind of remorse. Most of this acculturated Spain of today still believes we're one country, one nation and one society... And in a old fashioned jingoistic way.

Long story short: Monarchy in Spain will end soon. Then there will be a republic, then a civil war, then a dictatorship, then a Monarchy, then a Republic... It's a vicious circle, the best for Spain is to disband and remain allies and friends. In that case an Umbrella Monarchy as the Britsh have... Well, I would agree to that.

Spain does have it's issues, especially with Basque Separatists. We had to study Franco at the War College in Carlisle, PA. He was smart enough to remain neutral in WW II which is probably the only reason he survived. About 20 years ago was the last time I was in Spain and I found it interesting that no one would discuss Franco at all, even in private. It was like it was almost illegal to discuss Franco. Franco was only slightly higher on the Bastard Scale than Mussolini.

Romanoffia:

... [...] I found it interesting that no one would discuss Franco at all, even in private. It was like it was almost illegal to discuss Franco. Franco was only slightly higher on the Bastard Scale than Mussolini.

Click to expand...

This pretty much sums it up. His favorite execution method was strangling. And that bastard restored Monarchy, the current King condoned the dictatorship and has never showed any remorse about it.

Don't you think that the King supported Franco as a temporary measure, so that things could change if he took over? I mean, I don't think it was expected that democracy would return to Spain when he succeeded Franco.

mcmasterdonia:

Don't you think that the King supported Franco as a temporary measure, so that things could change if he took over? I mean, I don't think it was expected that democracy would return to Spain when he succeeded Franco.

Click to expand...

In fact I think he did so.

But did he condone the dictatorship? He did
Has he ever questioned or discredited Franco, his regime or the uprising? He hasn't

Because if he questions that, then he's questioning his own right to rule.

So, even if I'm happy about freedom of speech, gay weddings and trade unions, our Head of State was chosen by a war criminal. Not a nice thing to say to our European partners.

Hmmmmmm

Hmm...
In regard to the assorted separatists, how well are they doing in actually achieving their separation?

Also, personal opinion on Gibraltar.

Zyvetskistaahn:

Hmm...
In regard to the assorted separatists, how well are they doing in actually achieving their separation?

Also, personal opinion on Gibraltar.

Click to expand...

Catalan Parliament recently declared itself "a sovereign entity" and plans a referendum for 2014 to decide over their in/dependence.

Basque society is already mostly secessionist and is probably looking up to the Catalan process. Since the end of terrorism, basque nationalism is now a more united movement.

We Canarians, even after 20 years of nationalistic autonomous government, are now getting into debate over our (hypothetical) territorial waters, EEZ, tributary system, and discovering oil in our waters will likely speed up this process.

----

About Gibraltar: Gibraltar has been asked a couple of times through referendum, they made their choices and will surely have more chances to do so in the future. They even have a National day! The official Spanish position about GB is BS, since none of its own autonomous regions has the level of self determination GB has been given.


Regards (also, it seems I hijacked the thread xD)

2014 looks to be a good year for separatists then, our own separatists in Scotland have secured their referendum and it is timetabled for autumn 2014, no specific date though.

-----------

We do have good self-determination throughout the assorted crown dependencies, I mean unless you're the Argentine government, in which case we are still cruel and heartless empire builders...

Zyvetskistaahn:

We do have good self-determination throughout the assorted crown dependencies, I mean unless you're the Argentine government, in which case we are still cruel and heartless empire builders...

Click to expand...

Indeed. We here in Tenerife sometimes say our big historical mistakes were "not letting Nelson in, but letting Franco out". Since Canarian militias beat Horatio Nelson back in 1797 (and Franco was "Capitán General" in Africa dependencies), I wish we (not the Spanish army but We) had lost that battle against Nelson. If not free, I'd rather be British.

Hmm...
And how do you feel about the Falkland Islands?

That's nice she gave the throne to her son.

Zyvetskistaahn:

Hmm...
And how do you feel about the Falkland Islands?

Click to expand...

Pretty much the same I think about GB.

Argentina, just like Spain, claims land, territory, the EEZ, etc. They don't care about Falklanders just like Spaniards don't care about Gibraltarians (or whatever they are called), or even we, Canarians. We're possessions.

Under British rule, those dependencies have a right to self-determination. They may remain British, or opt-in the CW, or get somewhere in between, and in some cases even full independence is given.

Argentina and Spain share the same unwarranted arrogance (at a historical-political level, I don't hate them personally). They don't want to end colonialism, they want to take the colonies back, even sucking at war and diplomacy. Go figure.