Judges remove Dutch queen portraits from courts

Judges in The Hague have left the Dutch public flabbergasted by ordering new portraits of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima removed from the courts – because, they maintain, Maxima is not, according to the letter of the law at least, queen of the Netherlands.

It’s an extraordinary decision which callers to radio shows are suggesting must have been caused by mid-summer madness – or more likely perhaps, by the fact that judges are simply out of touch with the economic concerns of the rest of the country.

“Only someone who really has nothing else to worry about could make an issue out of this,” said one caller yesterday. “Maxima is the most popular royal in the country. It’s not just nonsense, it’s an insult.”

Willem-Alexander married Maxima Zorreguieta in 2002, amid some controversy because her father had been a minister in the military junta of General Jorge Videla that ruled Argentina in the late 1970s and was responsible for more than 30,000 "disappearances" and deaths.

Barred from wedding

Jorge Horacio Zorreguieta was barred from attending his daughter's wedding. Nor did he attend the glamorous investiture of Willem-Alexander as king in April – at which Maxima became "queen consort", allowed to style herself "Her Majesty Queen Maxima, Princess of the Netherlands."

On the same day, portraits of Queen Beatrix were removed from public buildings, including the courts, which were given the option of selecting any one of four portraits of the new king, including two with Queen Maxima. One of the royal couple was chosen for courtrooms in The Hague.

The judges, however, raised a point of law – and had them removed. A spokesman for the courts service said the judges were anxious to continue the tradition that "judgments were made in the name of the head of state", even though this was no longer required by the constitution.

Won over the public

While King Willem-Alexander was head of state, they conceded, Maxima had been named queen only as a courtesy, and as a result they were refusing to make rulings “in the queen’s presence” – even though that presence was in the form of a “double portrait” only.

Despite the controversy over her father, Maxima, a former investment banker, has won over the public by learning to speak Dutch fluently and by appearing regularly in public with her three daughters, Princesses Amalia (9), Alexia (7) and Ariane (6) – known as “the triple As”.