ANPPrincess Laurentien
NOS Nieuws•woensdag, 23:00
The Ministry of Finance has received reports of inappropriate behavior by Princess Laurentien, writes the AD based on conversations with insiders. Princess Laurentien is said to have “treated officials improperly”.
The ministry confirms that “emotions have sometimes run high” and that “a number of our colleagues” have reported this verbally. The ministry leaves it unclear whether this concerns Princess Laurentien.
According to the AD, insiders “without any doubt speak of transgressive behavior”.
Foundation for (Equal) Recovery
Following the childcare allowance scandal, in which tens of thousands of parents lost or had to pay back their childcare allowance, Princess Laurentien started a foundation to help those parents and children.
Her Foundation (Equal) Worthy Recovery (SGH) works together with the Ministry of Finance, which is responsible for solving the problems of the victims. It is said that things have regularly gotten out of hand on the work floor of the ministry.
Political reporter Albert Bos:
“Nobody in The Hague doubts the good intentions of the princess, but there have been rumors for some time that Laurentien made it clear when she disagreed with something. Even in the recent caretaker cabinet, this led to considerable irritation.
Now that there are even formal reports from civil servants, this makes the case very complicated for the princess, because as a member of the Royal House she occupies a special position. This is also starting to affect the monarchy and with it the king and prime minister Schoof.
The reaction of the foundation is telling, calling for calm, but also hitting back head-on. Laurentien did that in a video as well. The princess could also have chosen to use her influence more in the background, as is customary with members of the Royal Family, especially now that her method has been given the green light again. She apparently wants nothing to do with that.”
The foundation writes in a comment regrets that “once again anonymous officials” are putting SGH’s recovery approach in a bad light and calls the reports “slanderous accusations” against the princess.
Former MP Gert-Jan Segers, chairman of the foundation’s supervisory board, calls the accusations misplaced: “This absolutely does not do justice to who she is, how we got to know her and how she works together. (…) We are very disappointed in these anonymous civil servants who are more concerned with badmouthing others than with legal redress for the parents affected by the child benefit scandal.”
“If people feel uncomfortable, you can talk about it. But reporting it anonymously to the AD and saying that all sorts of things are going on without giving an example of a situation: we can’t do much with that,” responds spokesperson Frederike van Urk of the foundation of Princess Laurentien.
A new agreement was recently signed between the foundation and the ministry, says Van Urk. According to her, this also indicates that the collaboration with the ministry is going well.
Van Urk says that the motivation of the anonymous sources is not the recovery of the parents. “Every day that parents have to wait longer, emotionally and financially, is one day too many. They simply need to be compensated for what has been done to them.”
