The message sent during his speech quickly set the tone.
After the traditional credits, against the backdrop of Brabançonne, we see the King holding in his hand a letter given to him by children. In a video, these same children challenged the King. They expressed all their sadness and dismay in the face of the terrible images reaching them from several countries around the world. On the screen, images flash by of children in tears, one holding a cuddly toy in bombed Gaza, but also in Syria, Africa, Ukraine…”This image haunts our mind. It could be one of us.”, says a young girl, calling out to the King, as head of the State, but also as a father. “Do you believe there is still hope?”
It was in response to this question that the Head of State, touched by this appeal, began his Christmas speech.
“A few weeks ago, first secondary students from the Sancta Maria school in Louvain sent me a letter, accompanied by a poignant video. Confronted every day with images of children victims of war violence, they express their incomprehension about these tragedies. Their message contains profound questions. Some are addressed directly to me, as King, and as a father.
These students began current affairs discussions with their teacher at the start of the year which led them to record this video and write a letter addressed to the palace. The King, touched by the message, received the children of this class at the palace of Laeken. He promised to relay their message in his message to the nation during the end-of-year holidays.
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“Broken Dreams”
“The approach of these students is both overwhelming and hopeful. They put themselves in the place of other children, who live far from them, in a world where dreams are shattered before they can even hatch.“, notes the King. “Their questions touch me deeply. I understand their dismay, their feeling of helplessness. What can we, what should we, adults, say to them?”
With this question, the King appeals to every parent, to every Belgian, who must answer, with their children, such questions.
“These young people are asking us to give them reasons to hope,” underlines King Philippe.
As is often the case with him, Philippe draws dark conclusions, trying to bring a note of hope, even light, even naive.
“These reasons to hope, they exist. Always. To hope is not to passively wait for a better future“, says the King, also worried about the consequences that these conflicts may have in Belgium.
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The issue of violence against civilians is particularly dear to Philippe and Queen Mathilde. This is the theme that the seventh king of the Belgians chose, during his speech at the UN, when Belgium applied to sit on the UN Security Council in 2020. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Philippe speaks, during each of his speeches, about the violence committed against civilians. He also visited Dr Mukwege's hospital in Panzi, near Bukavu, where women victims of sexual violence are treated.
“A world without wars and suffering is of course illusory. But this should not prevent us from continuing to work on it. For heads of state and political authorities, this implies a constant commitment to safeguarding a world order based on international law, in favor of peace and for the protection of all, starting with the most vulnerable, the children”adds the King.
He also lists the challenges of our time which may seem “overwhelming”pointing as always to the “climate change”but also “geopolitical upheavals, a fragile economy, the technological revolution.”
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A very moderate amount of pressure on politicians
The King closes his speech with a light, very moderate, pressure attack addressed to the political world. “The coming year should finally see all of our governments at work. We are counting on them so that our country, its institutions, businesses and citizens can look to the future with confidence.”
With this remark, the Head of State is addressing Bart De Wever and the party presidents who are negotiating the formation of the federal government, but also to the elected officials stuck in the endless blockage of negotiations to form a Brussels government.
The King could, as in the past, have been more offensive towards the political community. But, while the president of the N-VA is still in action, and the crisis has not been recorded, Philippe favored a more temperate message. The King, however, keeps a card up his sleeve: he can always, if necessary, toughen up his tone during his speech to the country's authorities on January 30, if the process continues to slip.
It is a sign, however, that the King hopes the situation will be resolved by then.
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