King Willem-Alexander will speak during the commemoration of slavery on 1 July. Sources from The Hague confirm a message about this from RTL News. He may apologize there for the slavery past, but that is not yet final.
July 1 marks the 150th anniversary of the end of slavery. On December 19 last year, Prime Minister Rutte apologized on behalf of the State for the Dutch slavery past. He then said that the Dutch government had for years enabled, encouraged, maintained and benefited from slavery.
‘King very involved’
Rutte then also said that the king would be present at the commemoration in Amsterdam (Keti Koti) on July 1 and that he feels very involved in the subject. Many descendants of enslaved people would like the king to apologize as well as the prime minister.
Around the apologies at the end of last year, there was a lot of criticism of the course of events. When it was leaked that December 19 would be the day that the cabinet would apologize, organizations of descendants felt taken by surprise. They preferred July 1 as a day of apology. In retrospect, many researchers and descendants were satisfied with the tone of the Prime Minister’s speech.
- Rutte apologizes for Dutch slavery past, ‘not a period, but a comma’
