‘825.000 euro for grocery shopping’

‘King Willem-Alexander's allowance has to be decreased to 230.000 euro.’ In this way the king’s salary also meets the "Balkenendenorm". Member of Parliament Jan Vos (PvdA) dropped a political bombshell. And soon found him left all alone in the political arena. The ‘Balkenendenorm’ was introduced a few years ago and had become the standard for the maximum salary any civil servant is allowed to receive. The Balkenendenorm is named after the former Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and the idea is that nobody should be paid more than the person who runs the country. JOEP DERKSEN reports.

 

In this country, everybody has to pay taxes, but King Willem-Alexander is exempt from this duty. The PvdA, VVD and D66 are preparing a proposal to change this so that this inequality to all hardworking citizens will belong to the past.  But Vos wants to go one step further. He states that everybody working in the public sector can earn a maximum salary of 230.000 euro. But the king receives 850.000 euro, excluding all kinds of benefits and compensation amounts. Vos informed the NOS on 3 April: ‘The king gets 850.000 euro every year. Tax free. That is a lot of money for grocery shopping, because he also gets funds for (maintaining) his palaces and airplanes. Everybody in the Netherlands has to cut down on their finances, and the king should be no exception to this. He can be paid for what he does, but I don’t understand why he should earn so much more than the Prime Minister.’

Also the kings wife Máxima receives more money from the treasury than the Prime Minister. Vos pleads that her salary will also be limited to the Balkenendenorm. He informs that the political parties PvdA, D66 and VVD agree that the king should start paying taxes. ‘I think that we should go one step further and limit the kings salary to the Balkenendenorm’. Vos does not hate the royal family. ‘I am a big fan of the monarchy. But we all need to make sacrifices and the king should also do his part in this. He currently receives a fantastic reimbursement of expenses and for those 825.000 euro he only needs to pay for the grocery shopping.’

 

What he says seems to make perfect sense, but Vos does not seem to get a lot of support. Even politicians from his own party fail to back him up. PvdA-Minister Ronald Plasterk (Interior and Kingdom Relations) is perfectly fine with the current way that the king receives his payment slips. Plasterk said on 4 April to the Telegraaf: ‘I am under the impression, that this has been an individual action by Vos. The law (that determines the salary of the king, JD) has been approved by Parliament in 2009. If the Parliament wants to do it different, we shall wait and see. But I am not under the impression that this will be the case. We won’t have a debate about this subject every other year.’

Vos nevertheless says that he wants to propose the lowering of the kings salary in September, when the Tweede Kamer has to decide about this topic. He has a long way to go, because he still needs to convince even his own party members. Politicians such as PvdA spokesperson for the Royal House Jeroen Recourt. ‘You don’t let the queen wear a dress of H&M when she is going on a state visit’, he told the NOS on 3 April. King Willem Alexander, due to his love for certain alcoholic beverages also known as King Beer, stated on television, that he understands people stating that the Royal House should also  make cutbacks. However, he stressed that this would mean that part of his royal household would be laid off. Apparently, buying a cheaper dress for his wife does not seem to be an option. After having given several interviews about his proposal, it seems that Vos has been told to keep his mouth shut. When The Holland Times requested an interview, his secretary Ira van Gogh informed: ‘Unfortunately Mr. Jan Vos is currently not available to answer your questions. This is due to his very busy agenda. We sincerely apologise for this.’