And so, quite unexpectedly, our king plays a leading role in these gloomy times

Cathy Galle is a journalist at The morning.

Sometimes a person would like to be a fly on the wall. In this one the wall of the royal palace. True King Filip welcomed his half-sister Delphine for a three-hour lunch. Curious about what they had to say after all these years.

A man having lunch with his half-sister is perhaps the most normal thing in the world today. Not so with the Saxe-Coburgs. The brand new Princess Delphine first had to litigate for years to be recognized as the official daughter of Albert II. However, the whole country had known the ins and outs for twenty years, since the then very young journalist Mario Danneels wrote earlier in a book about Paola that her children had a half-sister.

King Philippe does what every great man should do here. He embraces his half-sister. Who the excellent VRT documentary Philippe of Belgium: the long way to the throne could hardly help but feel any sympathy for the person who sat under the wooden clap of yesteryear. Whether you are royalist or not. The gesture that Filip makes here is not only historical but also downright heart-warming. As if he puts a warm blanket around our numb shoulders.

And it is not the only historical event that the king has recently been able to write on his palmares. On October 1 he was able to inaugurate a new government, after almost 500 days of ‘trying’. A government that has decided not to fly each other all the time, but to go for connection and cohesion. If you want to get somewhere, something that should be the most normal thing in the world for a government. But here people sometimes preferred to roll over the pavers fighting.

That new government then once again found the right tone in the corona crisis. With her clear communication she succeeded in getting the population on board to a large extent. The latest motivational barometer of Ghent University shows that once again one in two Flemish people is motivated to follow the stricter measures.

A situation that we must cherish, especially now that we are undoubtedly moving towards even stricter rules. As it looks now, working from home will become mandatory as much as possible. Although there is little doubt that it will not stop there. The introduction of a curfew is still under consideration and we may also have to further reduce our close contacts. It is clear that difficult and dark times are coming. A little bit of it all togetherfeeling of the beginning of the first wave is more than welcome.

And so, quite unexpectedly, our king plays a leading role in these gloomy times. By showing that there is always hope and humanity. We would almost be tempted to start singing ‘Kumbaya’. Something that doesn’t even have a negative connotation nowadays.

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