Ive been reading some history lately, and I was surprised to find that spain and belgium both have monarchys that take an active role in governing. You would think the idea of having one person rule a country would start to seem backward by the industrial revolution. So since there are people here from these countrys (keltic, geforce), maybe you could explain why you still have a king. There may be other countrys in europe with actively governing monarchys, but Im not aware of them. Ofcourse we all know about the british monarchy, they only seem to provide material for tabloids.
By: Geforce - 24th August 2002 at 09:14
RE: monarchys
Just get rid of the monarchs … A European republic should be realistic.
Building Europe …
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By: Geforce - 21st August 2002 at 18:06
RE: monarchys
It’s for the best you said that latest in Dutch I wanted to say 😀 those tranlating machines just don’t work because they only focus on vocabulary and not on grammar.
By: Geforce - 21st August 2002 at 07:36
RE: monarchys
You can’t translate it in English, those are dutch expressions.
By: mixtec - 21st August 2002 at 07:15
RE: monarchys
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 21-08-02 AT 07:15Â AM (GMT)]Best dat je dat laatste in het nederlands zei … onderbroekenhumor
lolbroek
I looked this up in an online dutch/english dictionary, it means-
Best which you who lately in the netherlands zei…undershorthumor
lolshort
By: keltic - 20th August 2002 at 21:50
RE: monarchys
I beg your Pardon?….
By: Geforce - 20th August 2002 at 21:09
RE: monarchys
Best dat je dat laatste in het nederlands zei … onderbroekenhumor 😀
lolbroek
By: keltic - 19th August 2002 at 23:07
RE: monarchys
The royal family is highley respected in Spain since they are really humble, don´t give scandals, are humans and live like most people. They have a active role in political life and we are happy about it. He prevented Spain of having another civil war in the seventies. That´s why the people are so grateful. I find monarchy a good idea. It´s a part of our history, and like everthing sould be transformed to real life. It´s besides a good refereer in case of conflict of political powers, it´s a good diplomatic and a respected people (who should be separated from any political party). This is fine if things work. Here it seems that monarchy works and that´s why is popular in Spain.
By: Arthur - 14th August 2002 at 08:58
RE: monarchys
>The queen in the Netherlands is official Head of state, the
>country and is the head of te Staten Generaal (the senate
>and the House of Representatives comined). but the Prime
>minister is the real boss in our country and our Queen has
>to sign all law who are presented to her.
But who do you think has the biggest finger in the porridge (hey, let’s all translate our most silly proverbs and sayings into English!) in who gets to be Prime Minister? It’s the Queen. She decides who gets to form a new governmental coalition after elections, and hence almost automatically gets to decide who is to be the next PM. It’s not always the first one on the list of the biggest party – just look at the 1977 elections, when the Social Democrats (PvdA) won the elections massively but when the country ended up with a conservative (CDA-VVD) coalition. Prime responsible was Van Agt in the CDA, but the queen hardly did anything (meaning: appoint a willing ‘formateur’) to get the most logical PvdA-CDA coalition off the ground.
>She can not refuse
>to sign the laws (presented to her – A) becouse the laws are made by >the Representatives of
>the people.
Yes she can. It’s the Geheim van Noordeinde – hasn’t ever happened since WW2 but it is a possibility.
>If you look it that way she has little power…
The power she has is rather big, and definately too big as a mere reward of being born in the right crib.
>… but officialy she is our Head of state and she is not only
>cutting ribbons and that kind of stuff.
Unfortunately not. I’d like her to have a nice SYMBOLICAL role, and stay out of politics. You can’t be born to rule in a democracy.
>I must say I like this system and I do not want a president
>that change every 4 years. It is nice to know who’s next. In
>our case its Prins Willem Alexander and his beautiful wife
>(trust me she is) Prinses Maxima!
Maxima is NOT beautiful (poor skin, and a bit saggy already), she’s nice at best although she has a nice smile. I followed the couple last year for a whole day with a camera, so i think i can tell from a not-RVD perspective 🙂 . From the presentations those two were given that day (during their acquaintance-visit to Limburg) i can’t really say WimLex is really looking forward to his job either although he had been trained pretty well to hide his boredom.
En Maxima draagt grote Hema-onderbroken. Het scheen een beetje door 😀
By: mixtec - 13th August 2002 at 23:27
RE: monarchys
“If its broke but still works, dont bother fixing it”
Rabie-Its not just the tabloids that makes me think british monarchy is wacked out, its the entire history. I was reading about the war of the roses, and there was this queen Margaret who raised an army and defeated rebels trying to take the thrown because her husband the king was insane. When she returned to london in triumph, the people of london wouldnt open the gates for her and her army. Its like that Cheech and Chong routine “Daves not here”. “Open thy gates oh london to thy Queen. Queens not here. Nay tis thy queen returning in victory. Queens not here”. One nobel got the bright idea that if you picked the wrong side in the war of the roses, you lose your title, your property and might be executed. So in the final battle of the war of the roses, he told both sides he would wait to see which side was winning and then fight for that side, which he did and was duely honored afterwards. If you were to make a movie of the war of the roses, noone would beleive it.
By: Rabie - 13th August 2002 at 22:43
RE: monarchys
“if it aint broke don’t fix it”
why change the system that works well – the problems with the states are not the monarchs fault but others in every case i cna think of. the pres just love ot scandle hunt around them and you people abroad miss out on all the real work they do.
a predient would be more politicla and expensive while royalty brings millions of amazed yanks and japanses to gawk at buckingham palace }> (and we make a fortune selling silly suviners)
rabie :9
By: mongu - 13th August 2002 at 20:53
RE: monarchys
Before the Marxist explosion in Europe in the 20’s and earlier, a lot of intellectuals (though maybe not Marx himself) studied the British system of “constitutional monarchy” and declared it to be perfect.
It’s not!
But I do think it is a better system, for us, than a Republic would be. I guarantee that at least 95% of the people would prefer HM than Blair, given the choice of head of state! And that’s saying something, for one of the more popular Prime Minister’s we’ve had in the last centry or so. I do respect the Queen, but I would never respect a low life like the Rev. Blair. And respect is fundamental.
By: Geforce - 13th August 2002 at 17:25
RE: monarchys
Than just elect some hot chick as next president if you want it, a stupid blonde 😀 That’s democracy.
By: shorthome - 13th August 2002 at 17:01
RE: monarchys
The queen in the Netherlands is official Head of state, the country and is the head of te Staten Generaal (the senate and the House of Representatives comined). but the Prime minister is the real boss in our country and our Queen has to sign all law who are presented to her. She can not refuse to sign becouse the laws are made by the Representatives of the people. If you look it that way She has little power but Officialy she is our Head of state and she is not only cutting ribbons and that kind of stuff.
I must say I like this system and I do not want a president that change every 4 years. It is nice to know who’s next. In our case its Prins Willem Alexander and his beautiful wife (trust me she is) Prinses Maxima!
By: Arthur - 13th August 2002 at 15:44
RE: monarchys
The Dutch queen (or king, which is in the line of expectations) officially also have a small role in the government. Unofficially, the role is rather big. And secretly, it was the former queen’s husband (Prince Bernhard) which got the Netherlands out of New Guinee, the Uzi, the F-5, the F-104 and the P-3C…
By: Geforce - 13th August 2002 at 10:48
RE: monarchys
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 13-08-02 AT 11:20Â AM (GMT)]Yes, and you know Brad, it frustrates me. I find the idea of a non-elected head of state totally backward, even if he/she only has a passive role to play. In Federal Belgium, it is still the King (and not the federal parliament) who appoints the ministers, though in real life, political parties make the choise. In the regions and communities, it is the parliaments who have to appoint the ministers, though the minister-president of each region/community has to ask the king if it’s OK.
[link:www.belgium.be/en_index.htm|More info on the Belgian constitution]
Our previous King however, has helped setting up a gov’t and chosing ministers. He also refused to sign the abortion-law in 1992 which was approved by the parliament. Therefor, the gov’t declared him to be ‘insane’ for one day, so that the parliament could sign the law and not the king.
The King in Belgium still is a very powerfull man, though not many people know this. He plays an active role in politics, and all ministers, no matter what their political background is, obey them, even the Flemish nationalists. The King can also send the gov’t home if they aren’t doing their job well. He’s also the suppreme commandor of the armed forces (waaaw :D).
I think it’s time we ban all monarchy’s from Europe, and replace them with presidents. There’s a good chance our King would be elected as president (he’s rather popular here), but at least that would be democratic. In Sweden and Denmark, the role of the monarchs are reserved to ceremonial tasks only. Belgium, Holland and Spain are the only democracies where a king still has such an influence on politics.
But unlike the king of Jordan ie, our King does not show himself on TV or participates in international forums. That role is reserved for our PM (federal) and MP’s (minister-presidents, state) and his gov’t.
I think we should have the French electorrial system in Belgium, where president and parliament are elected seperattely.
Monarchists in Belgium use the argument that the King is the only thing that keeps Belgium together. This is however complete BS, Belgium will always remain one part for the simple reason that neither Flanders or Wallonia want to give up Brussels.
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August 13, 2002 at 2:24 am