No Royal tour through The Hague on Budget Day this year

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will not be riding a carriage through The Hague on Budget Day this year either. Due to the coronaviurs measures, the driving tour is canceled, just like last year. This was announced by the Senate on Tuesday. It formally organizes the opening of the parliamentary year.

The King will deliver the speech from the throne, just like last year, in the Grote or Sint-Jacobs Church in The Hague and not in the Ridderzaal. The church is bigger so more people can attend. About 250 people are welcome this year.

Budget day is this year on 21 September. Formally, it is the United Assembly of the States General. This means that, according to the constitution, all 225 members of the Senate and the lower house of parliament must be able to attend. This invariably happened in the Ridderzaal for more than a hundred years, until the coronavirus changed that last year.

The plans for Budget Day were changed by the chairman of the meeting, Senate president Jan Anthonie Bruijn, in consultation with parliament president Vera Bergkamp, the King, caretaker defense minister Ank Bijleveld, and the mayor of The Hague Jan van Zanen. There will also by less military ceremony.

The area will be closed off, so there is little to see for visitors. The organization said that people can better follow the day via television. The Golden Carriage, with which the King  and his predecessors rode from the palace to the Binnenhof on Budget Day for years, can still be seen in the Amsterdam Museum after a renovation. If the tour had gone ahead, the King and Queen would have sat in the Glass Carriage.