King Willem-Alexander paid a visit to two of The Hague’s most deprived neighbourhoods on Wednesday,  meeting locals and market stall holders.

The state information service RVD said the visit had been planned for some time and was at the invitation of The Hague’s mayor Jozias van Aartsen. Van Aartsen wanted to show the king the ‘real’ Schilderswijk, the RVD said.

The Schilderswijk and Transvaal districts have large immigrant populations and a number of Dutch jihadis were born there. Last December, nine defendants from Schilderswijk were sentenced to up to six years in jail for their role in a jihadi terrorist group.

Ahead of the walkabout, the king said the Brussels bomb attacks are even more reason for the visit to go ahead.

‘Everyone who lives in the Netherlands…, wherever they are from, should be able to participate in our free and open society,’ the king is quoted as saying by the AD.

‘If we can no longer do that, the terrorists will win,’ he said. ‘And then we will no longer be able to live as we do. That is what we stand for and that is how we must continue.’