In a letter that preceded Tuesday’s annual debate on the budget of the Royal House, Rutte deviates from his position last year. Then he said a breakdown of the king’s 5.4 million euros for “personnel and material expenditure” would hit “the limits of the Constitution.”
For years now, the House of Representatives has wanted to know more about the background to the ‘benefit’ to Willem-Alexander. This consists of an A component of more than 1 million euros (the salary) and a B component, with which the king may furnish ‘his House’ according to Article 41 of the Constitution. That money goes to people who work in his private sphere and to expenses he incurs.
Princess Amalia
The other paid members of the royal family also have such a B component: Queen Máxima 700 thousand euros, Princess Beatrix more than 1.1 million and Princess Amalia 1.4 million. As long as she is studying, Amalia pays her benefits back into the state treasury, as well as the expenses if she does not make them.
The amount of the compensation was established by law in 1973 and is indexed every year. But why the amount is so high, while the entire Department of the Royal House (245 FTE) is already paid from the national budget, remains unclear. MPs Joost Sneller (D66) and Attje Kuiken (PvdA) submitted a motion in the summer of 2020, asking Rutte to adopt a recommendation from the Court of Audit. The Court of Audit considers it desirable ‘to carry out a test every five years to assess whether the level of the B component is still appropriate to the level of the King’s personnel and material expenditure’.
Last year, Rutte replied that ‘actions and expenses’ under the B component ‘are generally not public’. At the time, he also based himself on an advice from the Council of State, from 2016. At the time, it found that there is no legal scope for testing the B component ‘at a more detailed level’, because the privacy surrounding the ‘ own interpretation’ by the king dominates here.
Door ajar
Rutte did leave the door ajar by reporting that the top of the court staff is not paid from the state treasury, but from the payment to the king. He described the functions that Willem-Alexander pays in his household from the B component as ‘the management of the Royal Household Service and advisors’. With regard to material expenditure, he only stated that they relate to ‘activities of a highly representative character’.
Rutte is now therefore prepared to submit a request to the Council of State. If, on closer inspection, such a periodic evaluation by the Court of Audit is nevertheless compatible with Article 41 of the Constitution, the Prime Minister would like to know ‘what principles and conditions must be observed in this regard’.
Faster of D66 called this ‘meager profit’ in the debate. He expressed the hope that if the Council of State indeed sees constitutional space, Rutte will actually use it. Rutte replied: ‘That intention is there.’
Rutte’s phone
As usual, the House of Representatives deals with the budget of the royal family at the same time as that of the Ministry of General Affairs, for which Rutte is also responsible. The prime minister received many questions about erasing text messages on his previous phone. This was contrary to the Archives Act, concluded the Government Information and Heritage Inspectorate. A separate discussion will follow on this. Rutte emphasized again that he acted according to an interdepartmental guideline, which prescribed ministers that ‘chat messages do not always have to be saved’. According to Rutte, ministers no longer delete messages.