Dutch PM against lowering crown princess' income, despite objections

Despite criticism from parliament, Prime Minister Mark Rutte does not want to lower the income Princess Amalia will receive annually once she turns 18, RTL Nieuws reports.

Princess Amalia turns 18 in 2021. From then she will be groomed to take over from her father, King Willem-Alexander. When she goes to university, she will receive a car with a driver, a secretary and other support staff, according to RTL She will receive an annual allowance of 250 thousand euros, plus 1.2 million euros personnel and costs.

The PvdA, D66, PVV, SP and GroenLinks find that amount too high for a student. They called on Rutte to intervene and reexamine the level of income during the parliamentary debate on the monarchy on Thursday. "We do a lot to limit executive salaries. Can you not say: we still have five years before Princess Amalia is 18, let's take another look at it? That's not so strange. 1.5 million is a lot of pocket money." D66 leader Alexander Pechtold said.

But Rutte does not want to reexamine the income. He pointed out that the decision on how much princess Amalia will receive from her 18th was already made in 2008. "The you yourselves voted on the income of Princess Amalia. I want to stay consistent. We made an agreement then. You can't just turn back on it." Rutte said.

The Prime Minister also has a problem with the term "pocket money". "From her 18th Amalia is a full-tie successor. From then she can follow her father any time. She will have no other choice. There should certainly be something in return."