Queen Paola of Belgium attended the commemorations of the Marcinelle mining disaster. 67 years ago, 262 miners lost their lives in a coal mine south of Charleroi. The biggest mining disaster in Belgian history took the lives of more than a hundred Italian expatriates. Queen Paola, of Italian origin, paid tribute to these victims, accompanied by two of her grandsons, Prince Nicolas and Prince Aymeric.
Read also: Princess Louise, Prince Nicolas and Prince Aymeric answer the Télévie switchboard
The Marcinelle mining disaster commemorated by Queen Paola and her grandsons Aymeric and Nicolas
On August 8, 1956, the coal mine at Bois du Cazier, in Marcinelle, caught fire around 8 a.m. In all, 275 men were working that day in the coal mine, of which 9 were at 1100 meters deep and more than half at around 1000 meters. King Baudouin was there at 7 p.m. on the day of the disaster. The rescue and fire extinguishing operations lasted several weeks, requiring the intervention of French and German firefighters and rescuers.
262 miners lost their lives. Only the 13 men who were able to get out of the mine immediately in the first minutes of the tragedy survived. Among these victims, 136 were of Italian nationality, 95 were Belgians and 8 were Poles, there were eleven different nationalities in all.
Read also: The children of Prince Laurent in Rome with their friends from Bourbon-Siciles: Gelati between friends for Louise, Aymeric and Nicolas with Chiara
Rare official engagement of Prince Laurent’s twins
This August 8, 2023, Queen Paola, 85, was accompanied by two of her grandchildren, Prince Nicolas and Prince Aymeric to attend the tribute ceremony. The 17-year-old twins are the sons of Prince Laurent and Princess Claire. This is the first time that the nephews of King Philippe have provided an official engagement for two with their grandmother.
Read also: The first garden party of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde: 600 guests celebrate 10 years of reign in the gardens of the Château de Laeken
Prince Nicolas and Prince Aymeric are 15th and 16th in the order of succession to the Belgian throne. The grandsons of King Albert II and Queen Paola take part in few official engagements but they are present at major family gatherings. They were seen in public not so long ago as they watched the show and the fireworks for the National Day, July 21, from the official stand in the Parc du Cinquantenaire. The last appearance of Queen Paola also dates back to the national holiday, when she attended the Te Deum with her husband at the cathedral of Saints-Michel-et-Gudule in the morning.
During the ceremony, a special thought went to the Italian victims, motherland of Queen Paola, wife of former King Albert II. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani made the trip. The politician at the head of Forza Italia was also President of the European Parliament from 2017 to 2019.
Two Italian Air Force fighter planes also flew over the Bois du Cazier site. The disaster had significant political fallout at the time, for the first time putting the rudimentary living conditions of Italian workers in Belgium at the heart of discussions. In 1946, the famous “coal agreement” signed between the two countries allowed the massive sending of Italian labor to Belgium which, in exchange, delivered 200 kilos of coal to Italy per working day and per miner. Italian.
Related News :