Republicanism becoming increasingly popular in Europe

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What is the argument for even having Royals in the 21st century? Tradition and that they bring in tourist money?

As long as there are Royals, there can be no true republic; nor can there be a true democracy of, by and for the people.

Thank god for that!

Pretty much. In some countries, there's a(n) (quiet) arguement that it also helps to keep a monarch with "reserve powers" to publically call out and/or appoint a new government if parliment's can't function. See: Italy, 2013. It's a very unpopular view, but that's one of the reasons.

Anyone with an ear for music would have rebelled against the "Koningslied' (King's song). It's flippin' dreadful by all standards. It's not just the republicans that objected.



Correction. The Dutch monarch isn't coronated. There is an inauguration, but the crown remains on the cushion and is not placed on the monarch's head. If it was, we'd have a lot more trouble.

I personally don't care much for the royals, other than that they do have a cultural value in Dutch history and society. But other people do. Their power is next to nothing and the percentage of the tax I pay to maintain the pageantry is not much. "QUeensday' is still important for many Dutch. I don't need it, but don't object to it either.

Prince Willem-Alexander had nothing to do with the Koningslied. There was some committee that hired a musician to write a song, as a gift to the new king. I don't think Prince Pils loses much sleep over this. In my opinion, the song takes itself too seriously for something that people (=shitfaced people) should be able to sing along to. That is what most people seem to think of Queen's Day (/King's Day), just another occassion to get drunk. If the monarchy would be abolished, I'm sure we could just rename it to Republican Day and still have the festivities.

This the maligned Koningslied:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEUKyKb4g6k[/youtube]

Wow. Just wow. I thought it was kinda crap without descending into absolutely, awfully unlistenable until that really bad rap started.

All in all... that was worse than We are the World. The Japanese version, even.

That's an argument against monarchs right there. And Dutch people rapping.

Yeah, posting that song felt like a Rickroll. Sorry about that. I promise I will never rap.

This is awesome. Hopefully, it'll be more successful than the Australian attempts and will inspire Commonwealth Realms to do the same.

It looks like it's purely a result of austerity and discontent with the political class system, unless any mainland Europeans can inform us differently?

From the topic title, I thought that Mitt Romney was planning another one of his famous European vacations.

It made me feel a bit better because our country would produce something as crap if not worse in the same circumstances.

The municipality of Amsterdam had reserved 6 places for people who wanted to demonstrate against the monarchy during the inauguration of King Willem-Alexander. Five of them are empty and one has about 70 people. There were many more demonstrations when Beatrix was inaugurated in 1980. So I guess republicanism is not on the rise in this country.

In any modern European country (except for Leichtenstein or Vatican City), the Constitutional role of "monarch" can be adequately fulfilled by a potted begonia. This is also true for most European "presidents", in those countries that have a "president".

What is the difference between a "head of state" and a potted begonia in Europe? The begonia costs less.