NL – Like so many other things this year, Budget Day will look different due to the coronavirus crisis. A big change announced this week is that King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will not travel to the King’s annual speech by coach, but by car. Primary schools in The Hague will still have the day off, AD report.
In July, it was already announced that the Royals wouldn’t tour through the city as usual, so people must not gather along the route. Day trippers were explicitly called upon not to go to The Hague on Budget Day – the third Tuesday in September.
Where the monarch’s speech was always given in the Ridderzaal, dating back as far as 1904, this year’s speech will be given in the Grote Kerk. The church offers more room for attendees to keep their distance from each other. The guest list was also cut from around a thousand to 250.
Fewer guests also means a shorter “hat parade”, in which attending Ministers, Senators and parliamentarians showed off their fancy outfits as they entered the hall. The “balcony scene”, with the Royal family waving to the crowd from the palace balcony, will also not happen this year.
