A historic moment awaits Princess Amalia: For the first time, the heir to the throne will officially visit the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands – with her parents.
Little by little, Princess Amalia, 18, is approaching the throne. The eldest daughter of King Willem-Alexander, 55, will one day take over the reins from her father. With her coming of age, the future student at the University of Amsterdam is also increasingly getting into the “family business” and is slowly preparing for her role as Queen of the Netherlands. Of course, this also includes more appearances at official events. And it’s not always about cutting ribbons or attending the opening of parliament. Sometimes dates can also be quite exotic, such as the one that awaits the Royal 2023 right at the beginning of the year.
Princess Amalia gets to know the islands of the Caribbean Netherlands
The Government Information Office (Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst, or RVD for short) announced on Thursday 1 September 2022: “His Majesty the King and Her Majesty Queen Máxima will be visiting the Caribbean part of the Kingdom in late January and early February 2023. Her Royal Highness , the Princess of Orange, will travel with them and get to know the countries of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten as well as the islands of the Caribbean Netherlands: Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba.”
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The royal company will be accompanied by Alexandra van Huffelen, State Secretary for Royal Relations and Digitization. Further details of the program will be announced later. According to the magazine “Vorsten”, the RVD also reported on Thursday: “The travel period fits into the curriculum of the course.” So nothing should stand in the way of a carefree time in paradise. Of course, it is not the pleasure that is in the foreground, but the representation of the crown. Nevertheless: a dreamier place for a business trip is hard to imagine.
No appanage – not even for the trip
As is well known, Amalia will be studying politics, psychology, law and economics in the Dutch capital from September. When asked, the narrator explicitly states: “The Princess of Orange has already indicated that she would like to repay the allowance she would receive from her eighteenth birthday, and this trip will not change that.” The heir to the throne wants to send a clear signal to the Dutch and make it clear that she can stand on her own two feet.
Royal visits to the Caribbean
The last official royal visitor to the island was Amalia’s grandmother Princess Beatrix, who was in Curaçao in November 2021. In 2017 she visited Aruba. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima have visited the islands many times: they were in the area in 2002, 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2018, among others. During his visit to Aruba in 2013, the king looked back on his first trip to Aruba in 1987, when he called the island “big brother”, the little “brothers”, meaning the newly independent islands of Sint Maarten and Curaçao, always to support. He was also on Curaçao with his parents at the time. Now his own daughter is accompanying him on a royal flying visit to the Caribbean. History repeats itself.
Sources used: rijksoverheid.nl, vorsten.nl