The event was not totally unexpected but it made an impression: King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands presented, on Saturday 1er July, his country’s official apology for its role in slavery. The sovereign also asked forgiveness for the one played by the ruling family, the Orange-Nassau, who, he said, never did anything to oppose the slave trade. “I stand before you as a king and a member of the government and I personally apologize to you; I feel that deep in my heart and in my soul,” declared the monarch in front of a crowd commemorating, in an Amsterdam park, the memory of the abolition of slavery.
The Netherlands was one of the last European nations to adopt such a measure, on 1er July 1873, almost three centuries after the creation of the Dutch East India Company, which ensured the wealth and development of the United Provinces of the time. Slavery, the king pointed out, was “the most hurtful, the most humiliating, the most degrading” systems of oppression, transforming the individual into a commodity. All, he lamented, even as the Netherlands and Amsterdam placed great importance on freedom, “a principle evident in this city and this country, but which did not apply outside our borders”.
As many of the ceremony attendees struggled to contain their emotion, one of them shouted ” Finally ! » when Willem-Alexander regretted that the royal family had never criticized the slave system. And if the king has, moreover, called for an investigation into the role of Orange-Nassau during the colonial period, a report commissioned by the Chamber of Deputies showed, in mid-June, that the royal house had directly benefited from the slavery, for an amount equivalent to at least 500 million current euros.
60% of Dutch oppose an apology
In his speech, the monarch did not raise the question of possible financial compensation for the communities of descendants of slaves. The government has so far released 200 million euros to combat “institutional racism” and the discrimination suffered by Afro-descendants.
A large part of Dutch opinion (60% according to a poll carried out in 2022) still seems hostile to an apology, as the damage inflicted on a monument erected in memory of slaves in Vlissingen, Zeeland, has once again demonstrated. on the night of Friday June 30 to Saturday 1er July.
You have 45.6% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.