King Willem ‘would not sign every law’

A section of a tv interview with crown prince Willem-Alexander, in which he said he may have moral reasons not to sign some new laws, was cut out of the final show on the prime minister’s orders, the Telegraaf reports on Thursday.


The interview took place in 1997, when the prince was 30, and was his first major tv performance.
In the interview the prince said he did not rule out having moral objections to signing some new laws, as the monarch is supposed to do. ‘I could imagine that the death penalty would be such a subject,’ the prince said.
The incident is recounted in a new book about Willem-Alexander and the way he is being prepared to be king.
If that part of the interview had been broadcast, the prime minister of the day Wim Kok would have had to explain to parliament why the crown prince would refuse to sign democratically-backed legislation, the paper says.

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