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 Click here for more related photos Belgium is the latest European monarchy to see its royals experience wallet tightening.
King Albert II announced today that he will use part of his taxpayer-paid salary for the upkeep for his palaces. His Majesty also explained he wants to freeze the €10.8 million he gets from the state and use an automatic 2012 salary inflation adjustment of some 3 percent — about €350,000 — for his royal properties.
“It shows that in countries with serious financial problems” even monarchies cannot escape the pressure, said Professor Herman Matthijs, who teaches at the University of Gent.
There were reports of the Belgian royals receiving a raise while their people are struggling financially.
The King’s vow to be austere comes as his country faces economic trouble. It has to stay within a 3 percent of economic output as required by the European Union or risks sanctions.
Other European royal families that have lost a certain percentage of their paychecks include Spain, United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Source: AP, AFP
Crown Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde of Belgium were in Liege Tuesday for a memorial for those who were killed in last week’s grenade and shooting attack. Six people were killed, including the prepatrator, Nordine Amrani. 125 people were also injured.
 View more photos from the event here Their Royal Highnesses laid a wreath at the Place Lambert, where photos of the victims were placed. They joined several politicians, including Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, and about three thousand people for three minutes of silence.
Philippe and Mathilde then met with the crowds and families of the victims.
At one point during the ceremony, emergency services arrived and played the Irish song “Danny Boy”.
The motive for Amrani’s attack is still not clear, though it is believed he was afraid to face drug offense charges. He had already spent time in jail for previous offenses.
Sources: Nieuwsblad, BBC News
 Click here for more pics It’s that time of year again, when the European royal houses release their Christmas portraits.
The Belgian Crown Princely family released theirs Thursday. The photos were done back in October, around the time of Princess Elisabeth’s pictures for her 10th birthday.
Each of the four children – Elisabeth, Gabriel, Emmanuel and Eleonore – were photographed doing individual things. Elisabeth is seen painting, 8 year old Gabriel is playing soccer, while 6 year old Emmanuel is driving a child’s car. Little Eleonore, age 3, is seen running on the grounds of the Palace.
After 541 days, Belgium at last has a government.
 Click here to see more images Tuesday saw King Albert II swear in the country’s new prime minister Socialist Elio Di Rupo, the first Francophone premier in 40 years. He is also the first openly gay prime minister in Belgium’s history.
“I swear fidelity to the King, obedience to the constitution and to the laws of the Belgian people,” Di Rupo said in French, and then in Dutch and German, the country’s three languages.
That was swearing in was followed by 13 ministers and 6 state secretaries who also took their oaths before the King.
This is a great sigh of relief for the Belgian people, who grew frustrated with the constant bickering between the Dutch speaking politicians and the French speaking that began in June 2010. The squabbling got so bad, many wondered if Belgium would split into two separate countries.
But the celebration is to be short lived. As the King noted, “there is a lot of work at hand.”
Prime Minister Di Rupo’s task is to now balance the feuding political groups, as well as tackle Belgium’s economic crisis and high debt.
He also has to work on his Dutch. Di Rupo admits his is insufficient with the language, which the majority of Belgians speak. But as a sign he is willing to work on it, he introduced his ministers to King Albert in Dutch.
“I’m going to work on it,” the Prime Minister promised. “I will reply in Dutch in parliament, even with mistakes.”
“My Nigerian maid who’s only been in the country for two years speaks better Dutch than Elio,” said separatist N-VA leader Bart De Wever.
Sources: AP, AFP
Belgium’s Prince Laurent and Princess Claire spoke out against a recent television documentary which accused the Prince of domestic violence. The couple did so when Laurent inaugurated a lodging for homeless people with dogs in Brussels.
 See more photos of the couple here “With this project I want to show me the way I really am. I think this is the real picture of me,” said the Prince.
He also refuted the insinuation that he is a violent person. “I would like to speak straight. I’m an animal lover but also a human lover. The most important thing in life is that you can look yourself in the mirror at night.”
With him for this event was wife Princess Claire. As the media pressed on about the documentary claims, she got upset and said, “I think now enough is enough. You will also have three children. Those insinuations are wrong.”
Laurent tried to get the reporters to ask him about his charity work with animals, but it didn’t work.
“Enough is enough, Laurent,” Claire whispered to him. “The project did not interest them.”
The RTBF documentary aired over the weekend. It comes as the Prince is emerging after being suspended from the royal palace after doing very undiplomatic things this year. They included meeting with Libyan officials and going to the Democratic Republic of Congo without the permission of any Belgian politician.
Source: De Standaard, Zita
 See more photos related to the King here The Belgian royal court announced that King Albert II had surgery to remove basal cell carcinoma on his nose Thursday.
The procedure took place at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels by Professor Benedict Lengelé.
The court says the surgery went smoothly.
Basal cell carcinoma is a common form of skin cancer which rarely kills the patient. However, it could lead to other types of skin cancer, for example squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma.
Sources: La Monarchie Belge, Wikipedia, Mayo Clinic
November 15th marks King’s Day in Belgium and the celebrations include certain members of the Belgian royal family attending the Te Deum mass at the Saint Michael and St Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. As per tradition, King Albert II and Queen Paola did not attend.
 Click here to check out more photos But their youngest child, and the enfant terrible of the Belgian royals, Prince Laurent did. The Prince was at the mass with his wife Princess Claire. It was the first time the couple took part in an official royal event since Laurent was suspended from them back in May. He was banned after traveling to the Democratic Republic of the Congo – a former Belgian colony – without the permission of government officials earlier this year.
But all seemed well for Laurent and Claire as they mingled with their family and the Belgian people after the service.
Unfortunately, there were some protests against the royals by members of the Flemish right-wing party (N-VA). Several people were arrested after shouting anti-monarchy slogans outside the cathedral.
Source: Daylife
On Tuesday, Belgium’s Princess Mathilde stopped by two separate organizations which are connected to a national prize named after her. Both places were related to needy mothers and child care.
 Click here to see gallery of Peruwelz visit The first, La maison de la Parentalité, in Péruwelz, is a a pilot project focusing on early childhood education. The maison, set up three years ago, encourages the process of co-education among parents of children, newborn up to the age of three.
“Our goal is to help the woman not to feel alone in raising her child,” said social worker Bruno Humbeek.”We’re not going to just raise them and make them grow together, but we participate in their [the children] development.”
The Princess received a tour of the maison and chatted with the mothers who use the facility.
Next was De Bakermat in Leuven. This one helps underprivileged mothers and their young. At one point, Mathilde sat on the floor with the mothers and their babies to talk to them.
Source: L’Avenir, Nieuwsblad, RTBF
Tuesday marks the 10th birthday of the young girl who might be Belgium’s first reigning Queen.
 Click here for gallery at Daylife.com Princess Elisabeth, the eldest child of Crown Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde, was born October 25th 2001. Although she is now 10 years old, she is rarely seen in the public eye. The exceptions are arranged sessions with the media during the summer, her first day of school, and most recently, when she helped inaugurated a hospital in Ghent which bears her name.
 She has three younger siblings: Prince Gabriel and Prince Emmanuel, and Princess Eleonore.
A student at Sint-Jan Berchmans College in Brussels, Elisabeth would be the first monarch in Belgian history to be educated in Dutch.
Belgium has a long history of rifts between its French and Dutch speaking populations. The rifts can be so strong that they threaten to split Belgium into two countries. It is Elisabeth’s grandfather King Albert II who fights to keep his country together.
Let’s hope that the young Princess will be able to celebrate her future milestones as Queen of the Belgians.
Source: Belga
In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Belgian organization that brought equality for women farm workers, Princess Mathilde visited three farms in the West Flanders region of the country. She was invited to those farms because the women’s organization, KVLV, to show her the gender equality at those places.
 View gallery of Princess Mathilde at the farms at Zimbio.com The first farm Mathilde saw was a hop house run by the Desmyter family in Poperinge. There, she was briefed on how hops are grown and how they are dried. She also learned about hop shoots, and the difference between aromatic smell and bitter hops. Mathilde was so interested in what she was learning, she spent 20 minutes overtime.
Later, the Princess went to see a rhubarb farm owned by the Louwagie family in Alveringem.
Finally, Mathilde stopped by a dairy farm in Veurne run by the Dequeecker family. Anne-Marie Dequeecker told reporters that Her Royal Highness showed visible interest in how her farm was operated and what they produced. “The princess was very interested in the life of the women she met. I’m glad I was able to show her a lot, but I am also aware that there are many women who work in the shadow of the company and will never be seen.”
To see video of the Princess in Poperinge – and her speaking Dutch - click here.
Source: Knack.be, Landbouwleven
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