The Dutch queen has overstepped her authority in ousting the Dutch ambassador to South Africa, reports Bart Luirink
The Dutch ambassador in South Africa, Eduard Roell, has been reassigned as ambassador to Belgium because of an alleged extramarital affair, months before the official end of his term.
According to a leading Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hans van Mierlo was forced into this decision by The Netherlands’s Queen Beatrix, who is a strong supporter of traditional family values, although his affair actually ended more than two years ago.
The queen will be visiting South Africa from September 30 and made it clear during talks with the minister in preparation for the tour that she was not prepared to share the stage with the “philandering” Roell.
Constitutionally the Dutch queen is not allowed to intervene in diplomatic appointments. In fact her role is almost totally symbolic — she is only supposed to sign government decisions into law. Her public speeches are authorised by the Cabinet and are supposed to represent the Dutch government’s viewpoints. But sources at the NRC Handelsblad said that Beatrix insisted Roell leave South Africa before her visit.
After Beatrix made her opinion repeatedly known, Van Mierlo, a member of the liberal democratic party (who has himself lived with a girlfriend for many years), gave in.
According to NRC Handelsblad, Beatrix became irritated when Roell left his wife in 1992 when he was appoined to Pretoria, and began a new life with an old girlfriend. But then minister of foreign affairs Pieter Kooymans — ironically a member of the conservative christian democratic party — rejected Beatrix’s objections to the appointment. He, however, made it clear to Roell that he should avoid a public scandal, inform his diplomatic staff confidentially and that he was not allowed to take his girlfriend to official gatherings with members of the South African government.
According to a source in South Africa, Roell’s wife had a stroke not long after the initial unofficial separation, and the ambassador broke up with his girlfriend and cared for his wife after she arrived in South Africa in 1993.
It is unlikely Beatrix thought that Roell was still living with his girlfriend when she ordered his transfer to Brussels. But her personal involvement in the matter has caused a debate that is sweeping through the Netherlands on the constitutional dos and don’ts of the House of Orange.