“Polls don’t do much for me. What I do think is good is constructive criticism,” said the king during King’s Day in Maastricht. “If you don’t have that, you could end up like Putin. And nobody wants that.”
At the moment, just under half of the population (47 percent) has confidence in the king, according to an Ipsos poll of 1,000 people commissioned by the NOS. A year earlier, it was 57 percent. The king receives a score of 6.7 from the public. Last year it was still a 7.1 and the year before even a 7.7.
King Willem-Alexander once again emphasized the importance of freedom on a day like King’s Day, especially after the public holiday could not continue for two years due to corona. “We see in Ukraine what this means,” he also said of the importance of freedom. “We enjoy the fact that we can celebrate together again.” Queen Máxima said that she had especially missed “the feeling of connection” and the “enjoyment together”.