Filemon Wesselink thinks the criticism of Princess Laurentien and her behavior regarding the Traces of Slavery program is very justified. “It’s quite narcissistic,” said the presenter.
Princess Laurentien is under fire for her egocentric performance in the program Traces of Slavery, in which she discovers that she has foremothers from Malaysia, China and Java and is a descendant of both slave owners and enslaved women. She soon takes everything very much into her own hands during the TV broadcast.
“She’s wrong!”
TV critic Victor Vlam brings it up in the Hélène Hendriks talk show The Orange Winter. “I think everything about this is really wrong. I think Princess Laurentien is wrong, I think Eloise is wrong.”
Laurentien takes the cake, he thinks. “She compares her scandal, her media storm in which she was accused of intimidating behavior towards officials of the Ministry of Finance, with the suffering that her ancestors had in slavery. That is of course really absurd.”
A little respect
Victor finds that woman bizarre. “She has had so much in life. She is the daughter of a minister, she grew up in wealth, she grew up in The Hague and Tokyo, she married a prince. Then she has one setback with a media storm and then she goes so crazy that she compares it with the slavery past of her parents.”
“Walking for a day in the shoes of a bricklayer or a nurse… These are the people who probably have a very difficult life. That is really more difficult than her easy life and she should acknowledge that. She is from the royal family, she should have a little bit of respect for the common man and that is missing in her story.”
Narcissistic
Table guest Filemon Wesselink also deals a verbal blow to Laurentien. “What Laurentien does is of course a bit worse. Something very bad has happened throughout history and it is quite narcissistic to say: ‘Yes, that hurts me very much!’”
He continues: “Just like you have been on holiday in Venezuela and then say: ‘Yes, it is very close. It hurts very much.’ That is also in this program and I think you have to be very careful with that.”
Victor concludes: “I think he’s a terrible person. I really think he’s a terrible person.”