Lawmakers demand royal family allowance be cut

Belgian lawmakers demanded a cut in the living allowance of King Albert’s youngest son, Prince Laurent, April 17, following claims the prince used taxpayer’s money to buy an Italian villa in 2002 for one million Euro. This revelation comes months after Prince Laurent was embroiled in a fraud case involving navy funds illegally acquired to renovate his home in the outskirts of Brussels. Jean-Marie Dedecker, an opposition lawmaker, and Pol Van Den Driessche, a member of the CD&V, accused the prince of using public funds to behave like a real-estate agent. No controls exist on the way the royal family spends the public allowance. Furthermore, money for the royal family comes from various ministry budgets including defense, interior, finance and foreign affairs, making funding complex and confusing.
Lawmakers from different political parties, therefore, called for Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme to overhaul the way royal allowances are dispensed and reform allowance rules. For instance, King Albert, his wife Queen Paola and his three children, their husbands and wives and 12 grandchildren all receive state funding, along with Queen Fabiola, the widow of Albert’s late brother King Baudouin. Political parties now want to limit salaries to King Albert, Queen Paola, Crown Prince Philippe and his wife Princess Mathilde. In particular, it has been requested that Prince Laurent get a job and that approximately 300,000 Euro of his annual allowance be cut.
A total of 30 million Euro a year is handed out to the royal family to cover living allowances, 234 security agents, transport and trips. Costs of the Belgian-based villas and palaces where the royal family resides are covered by separate budgets because they are state properties. Leterme has declined to say what he would do. Dedecker, however, revealed that Leterme had told him privately not to expect changes until the monarch dies or abdicates.