Princess Laurentien accused of inappropriate behavior; "Slandeorus," foundation says

The Ministry of Finance has received multiple reports of inappropriate behavior by Princess Laurentien in its collaboration with her foundation, Stichting (Gelijk)waardig Herstel (SGH), AD reported. According to the foundation, anonymous civil servants are putting the Princess in a “bad light” with “slanderous accusations.” SGH wants to help compensate victims of the benefits scandal. “Nobody, especially the affected families, benefits from even more unrest surrounding the compensation approach,” SGH said.

According to AD, things between Princess Laurentien and civil servants regularly got out of hand. “Insiders describe a pattern of intimidation that led to a culture of fear,” the newspaper wrote. They accused the princess of emotional reactions, name-calling, and not tolerating contradiction. The civil servants reported the behavior, but nothing changed, the newspaper wrote.

The Ministry of Finance confirmed that “a number of our colleagues” have made verbal reports of emotions in the collaboration with the foundation but would not elaborate on the number or content of the reports. The Ministry also wouldn’t say whether the reports were about the princess. “Emotions sometimes run high” in the collaboration, Finance said.

“The verbal reports were made confidentially and have been handled carefully,” the response from Finance stated. “We believe that our employees should be able to count on this to remain the case, and we will, therefore, not make any further statements about this.”

The government information service RVD said that the Ministry of General Affairs had been informed of the reports “in the confidence that the Ministry of Finance will handle the reports carefully.”

SGH denies the image presented in AD and links the reports to the benefits scandal itself, saying that this “personal attack” is to damage Princess Laurentien’s credibility. “Aggrieved parents inside and outside the foundation refer to the personal attack as a pattern that they themselves also had to endure. It is a pattern of abuse of power, false accusations, and having to prove innocence.”

The foundation acknowledged in the statement that “emotions” were involved in the “intensive cooperation” on the princess’ compensation method. “The foundation regrets that those involved from both organizations experienced the process as emotional and heavy at times.”

Princess Laurentien and her foundation are considering taking legal action if the AD does not rectify its article, a spokesperson added on Wednesday evening. “We hold the freedom of the press in high regard. But the AD cannot simply say something without substantiating or proving it.”

AD editor-in-chief Rennie Rijpa said, “We would never publish unfounded statements. Our journalist has done good, substantive work. We look forward to further steps with confidence.”

The “Laurentien method” is more generous than the compensation procedures that the Ministry of Finance itself has set up. There has been a lot of fuss about the approach. Parents were enthusiastic about it, but an initial trial with around 300 files did not immediately convince the Ministry of Finance.

According to calculations by civil servants, the princess’ method could cost billions extra, and there were concerns about the explainability and feasibility of the compensation. The Ministry doubted whether the method could be applied on a large scale, among other things. Nevertheless, there was ample support for the princess’ approach in parliament.

Laurentien’s method was temporarily suspended, but according to SGH, it was gradually restarted this week.