Today is the annual Dutch King's Day, the 55th birthday of the current King William Alexander. After two years of public celebrations stopped because of the pandemic, this year the Dutch royal family returned to tradition and went to the southern city of Maastricht to enjoy the people.
This day is also a day of carnival for the whole people of the Netherlands.
Orange is the color of the Dutch royal family. Since last night's Night of kings, towns across the Netherlands have gradually entered an orange world. In some large and medium-sized cities, people stay up all night, gather in front of the stage, drink beer, and watch the performance.
In Mars city, the last rehearsal was held yesterday, because the King's Landing is here, there must be a lot of wonderful shows.
Today is also a day when Dutch people are allowed to set up street stalls, so since last night, many people have gone to the city to occupy stalls, hoping to make a small fortune, or just for an atmosphere and fun.
Early this morning, Dutch Prime Minister Rutte first tweeted that he wished the king a "happy birthday."
From 10.30am onwards, the Dutch royal family appeared in Marstown.
Today, King William Alexander and Queen Maxima are accompanied by three princesses, as well as the king's brother, Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien, who are members of the royal family, as well as some juniors.
William Alexander and his family first arrived by bus at Sint Servaasbrug, the oldest bridge in the Netherlands, where they were greeted by Maastricht Mayor Annemarie Penn-te Strake and Governor Emile Roemer of Limburg, from where the royal family and his party walked through Maastricht.
The first part of the show, which takes place on a street parallel to Maas Avenue, is called "Maastricht Life".
The royal family then continues to the Graanmarkt, home to a huge "gateway to Europe" where Maastricht's DJ duo Lucas & Steve performs.
From Graanmarkt, the royal family headed to The Square of The Church of Our Lady (Onze Lieve Vrouweplein). Under the auspices of local entertainers, members of the royal family participate in various games and watch the making of typical foods. The famous Dutch light music band André Rieu performed on the other side of the square.
Further afield on the street Bredestraat, there is a carnival performance typical of the Limburg region". A little further on, the focus is on everyday life in the Netherlands.
Cross the Bredestraat to reach the famous square Vrijthof in Mars. Rowwen Hèze will sing a song on stage that was written specifically for the occasion.
Afterwards, the audience sang the Dutch national anthem, Wilhelmus, where the king and his family bid farewell to the people.
The move of the Dutch republicans
On this day, republicans who oppose the royal family will not miss this opportunity.
Yesterday, the former Dutch Republican Association group Republiek was expected to have around 80 demonstrators on the route walked by the royal family on Maastricht's Day, which Floris Müller, the group's president, told local media outlets 1Limburg.
According to Mueller, the members of the "Republic" wanted to make their voices heard, sending a signal against the monarchy. "We are expressing strong emotions as more and more people no longer support the monarchy."
According to them, for the first time, the Dutch royal system no longer had a majority. The group drew this conclusion based on survey data from the 2020 survey agency Ipsos, showing that only half of the Dutch still support the succession system.
Müller stressed that the demonstrators did not want to cause any nuisance: "We are not the ones who want to spoil the atmosphere of the party, we are also going to celebrate this party, but in a different way: Willem de Laatste (let William be the last)".
During the demonstration, the group wanted to hold up a banner with that text on the route of the King's Parade.
The Maastricht city government has designated the centre's Het Bat as a place where this could happen.
This morning, on the walls along the way, there have been anti-royal and monarchy words painted.
The king responded in this way to the decline in popularity
In Mars, when asked by a reporter for nos to the king's reaction to the investigation into the decline in royal popularity, the king said: "I have always thought that the polls are nothing to me, but what I like is constructive criticism." In other words, without this kind of poll, you will end up like Putin. However, no one wants to do that. ”
Today, according to the latest survey commissioned by the Dutch media NOS by Ipsos, confidence in King William Alexander has once again declined compared to a year ago. Currently, less than half of the population (47%) have confidence in the king. A year ago, it was 57%.
Thousands of people took the poll.
The King's public score is 6.7. It was still 7.1 a year ago and even 7.7 the year before.
However, Queen Maxima's score has improved, with her score of 7.5 last year and now 7.6. The admiration for Grand Princess Atrix is also relatively stable, with her scores of 7.2 this year, compared to 7.3 and 7.4 in previous years.
According to the investigative body, a large proportion of the Dutch believe that King William Alexander has not shown solidarity with the people. Compared to last year, the proportion of people who believe he has shown solidarity has fallen from two-fifths in the Netherlands to one-quarter.
It was generally gratifying that the royal couple had hosted thirty Ukrainians at het Oude Loo Castle in Apeldoorn, although a third believed that the royal couple had done so for their own image.
Most Dutch, about 60 percent, still support the monarchy as a form of government.
Support for the monarchy was severely weakened in 2021 when it fell from 74 percent to 58 percent, but according to ipsos surveys, it remains unchanged this year.
A previous survey by tv show Een Vandaag also showed that popularity in the Dutch royal family has fallen to a new low.