After a well-deserved end-of-year vacation – the Dutch sovereigns are among the most active in Europe – in Argentina, the birthplace of Queen Maxima, Their Majesties are returning to service. A start to the school year marked, as every new year, by two greeting ceremonies at the royal palace in Amsterdam. At the same time, Willem-Alexander and his wife also find their personal diary.
To start the year, and even before heading to the official capital of the kingdom for the first New Year’s reception, Willem-Alexander received, in his jacket, on January 13, the ambassadors of Cuba and the United States for a farewell interview, each arriving at the end of their mission in the Netherlands. A city suit put on, and joined by Maxima, the king then heads to Amsterdam.
At the royal palace in Venice of the North, an assembly of several hundred elected officials, senior officials, but also representatives of intermediary bodies and civil society actors await the sovereign couple. Also in the audience are Princesses Beatrix and Margriet and the latter’s husband, Professor Pieter van Vollenhoven.
After numerous handshakes, the king delivered a speech following on from the much-applauded Christmas speech. “We are all on board one and the same ship, a ship that moves in turbulent waters,” underlines Willem-Alexander in reference to the national and international situation, before calling for dialogue between all the components of the Company. “Because understanding grows confidence. And confidence grows in resilience, which we desperately need in these turbulent times.”
Creative workshop
The next day, same setting but new actors. It was the turn of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Netherlands as well as representatives of international organizations to receive good wishes from the King and Queen, dapper in a burgundy coat by Claes Iversen.
Once the meeting is over, Maxima meets, in The Hague, the participants of the artistic project “The Conductive Thread”, which brings together residents of the “royal city” around embroidery. If the queen has forgotten her glasses, the disappointment does not prevent her from getting her hands dirty. The mother of princesses Catharina-Amalia, Alexia and Ariane is not her first attempt, she has participated on several occasions in the making of silks intended for the palace of Huis ten Bosch, the main residence of the royal family , during its recent restoration.
Needle in hand, Her Majesty discusses at length with the participants, of all origins and life paths, around the themes of the feeling of belonging and the spirit of community. According to the magazine Monarchsthe queen took the opportunity to learn a few words of Surinamese with a national of this former Dutch colony and to find out about the relatives of a Syrian refugee, who replied, moved, pointing to the embroiderers, “you have another family here” . One thing led to another, from meetings to speeches, the sovereign couple continued their mission as a common denominator between all the Dutch.
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