Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has responded to last weeks report naming her family as the most expensive European monarchy with magnificent Queenliness: she says she sees “no reason” to reduce the allowance of €830,000 she receives from the state every year, according to Peter Cluskey of the Irish Times.
Her comments follow publication of an annual report on the cost of European heads of state, by Prof Herman Matthijs of Ghent University, Belgium, which shows the cost to the Dutch taxpayer of the Dutch royal family is €39.4 million (excluding security cost).
The bill for subsidising Queen Beatrix (74) and her children, including heir to the throne Crown-Prince Willem Alexander, his wife Princess Maxima and their three young daughters, Amalia, Alexia and Ariane, is roughly four times that for keeping the Spanish royal family, which costs between €9 million and €10 million, and has taken a 7% pay cut.
Queen Beatrix knocked the British Royals off the undesirable top spot for the first time in five years.