King flies up and down from Greece by private jet for minister’s swearing in: ‘It’s good that he takes his role seriously’ | Interior

Mariëlle Paul visited Paleis Huis ten Bosch on Friday afternoon to be sworn in as (outgoing) minister for Primary and Secondary Education. Paul succeeds Dennis Wiersma, who left last month. The king returned specially from his holiday address in Greece, reports aviation expert Menno Swart, who relies on public flight data. At 11 a.m. a private jet from Athens arrived at Rotterdam The Hague Airport, at 2 p.m. the same aircraft flew back to the Greek capital.

According to Swart, the king used a private jet, aircraft about which there has been a lot of controversy in recent months. After all, private jets emit far more greenhouse gases per passenger than commercial scheduled flights.

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Greenpeace is therefore ‘surprised’ that the king flies back and forth from his holiday address in one day, for a job that is completed within an hour. “Last weekend it was 44 degrees in Greece. Didn’t these dangerously high temperatures make the king think? Traveling by private jet is the most polluting and thus exacerbates the climate crisis,” sighs Maarten de Zeeuw, who researches pollution from private jets at Greenpeace. In previous reports, De Zeeuw called it ‘shameless’ to continue to travel with the ‘most polluting and most exclusive means of transport’, especially now that heat records are falling and ‘climate disasters are affecting more and more people worldwide’.

The king could also have done this swearing in with a video connection, as was done earlier with the swearing in of minister Sigrid Kaag, says De Zeeuw. Kaag was sworn in digitally because she had tested positive for corona. That was the first time in history. Was that also possible in Paul’s case? The law is not clear about this, says Paul Bovend’Eert, professor of Constitutional Law at Radboud University in Nijmegen. “An swearing-in must be done in front of the king, but the law does not clarify whether this must be done physically, or whether it can also be done via a video connection. In theory, it could be both.”

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But, Bovend’Eert quickly adds, it is ‘very good that the king chooses to do this in person’. “It is about the swearing in of a minister. That is an exceptional and important moment. It is good that the king takes his role seriously and stands there at such important moments.”

Earlier this month, Willem-Alexander also had to interrupt his holiday. Then he had to come back because of the fall of the cabinet and he received caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

According to Bovend’Eert, it would be ‘very strange’ if the king said in these two issues: I will stay in Greece and do everything via a Zoom connection. “So I can’t really take this Greenpeace posturing seriously,” says Bovend’Eert. “If he didn’t come, he would get a lot of criticism from the Dutch population. Because ‘you see, he’s not coming back from vacation’. So this is typical Dutch posturing: it is never good.”

The Government Information Service confirms that the swearing in of a minister ‘usually takes place physically’. “When the cabinet was sworn in in January 2022, Minister Kaag took the oath digitally because of a corona infection. This was an exception given the unique situation at the time. In addition, all flights of members of the government are CO2 compensated as standard.”

The Government Information Service never makes any announcements about the royal family’s holiday. Not even ‘about transport movements’. The public agenda of the royal house is empty until at least the end of August. It is known that the royal family has a holiday home in Greece and usually flies to Athens to travel from there to their home. Willem-Alexander and Máxima will certainly be back at work on August 31, when they will pay a regional visit to the Gelderse Vallei.