The organization of Budget Day is quite an operation for the municipality. Due to the renovation of the Binnenhof, this year’s speech from the throne will not be in the Ridderzaal but, just like the year before, in the Royal Theater in The Hague. That is why the municipality has, among other things, removed all the weeds next to the route, closed trash cans and set up a grandstand.
Fences and signs
In addition, she has installed 4,000 crowd barriers along the route and 130 traffic signs for parking, for example. Conversely, traffic signs have also been removed because they detract from the ‘aesthetics of the area’. Furthermore, the theater itself must also be prepared, in addition to the staff, such as the large number of police officers on duty that day.
Skip a year? That is not possible by law. “We cannot skip, because the constitution states that we must,” says Jan Anthonie Bruijn, chairman of the United Assembly and the Senate. Article 65 of the Constitution reads: “Every year on the third Tuesday of September or at an earlier time to be determined by law, an explanation of the policy to be pursued by the government shall be presented by or on behalf of the King in a joint meeting of the States General. datum.”
Bruijn continues: “Outgoing cabinet or not: there must be government and a budget must be drawn up. We are happy that it is possible again and that the ceremonial can take place again with two hundred horses, four carriages, and so on.”
Read the speech from the throne
Yet it is not stated anywhere how the tradition should be continued – and therefore not how large a scale it should be taken. It could also have been done via a video connection.
The speech from the throne does not even necessarily have to be read by King Willem-Alexander. “The king does not have to do it,” says Bert van den Braak, professor of parliamentary history at the Montesquieu Institute. “A minister may also do it. He will not read a speech from the throne, but simply a ‘speech’.”
What can we expect tomorrow? “I think it will mainly show how the country is doing, what problems there are and what can perhaps be done about them,” says Van den Braak
A lot of work was done in the Royal Theater today, including polishing the chairs. Vera Bergkamp, chairman of the House of Representatives, was also present. “This week the House will decide which budgets will go ahead and which will not,” Bergkamp told Editie NL. “And it may well be that the House says: we still want to do quite a bit in this period until the elections.”
2023-09-18 18:21:23
#Budget #Day #big #plans
