monarch from queen elizabeth? absolutely, you can t copy somebody else. king charles s family divisions have been painful. the norwegians seem to have answered the vexing issue of what to do with the royal spare, even a controversial spare, simply by relying on love and family bonds, and it s got them through the turmoil relatively unscathed. i ve come 700 miles south, from norway to belgium, which became a constitutional monarchy in 1830. that means the belgian monarch rules with the consent of the government, agreeing not to dabble in domestic politics. it s the same in britain, butjust last year, charles reportedly criticised government policy on the deportation of migrants, he s always spoken about ecology.
of belgium s colonial past, or was he speaking for the country? if we say king philippe has a new attitude towards our colonial past, we must not forget that the king in belgium, as a constitutional monarch, has always have to be approved by the government. so philippe went and made a regret, but not apology, but you have princess esmeralda, who has been much more outspoken. princess esmeralda is not really part of the core royal family, so to say, she earns her living as a journalist and a writer. she is more on the radical side
the belgium congo without any mention of the african victims. do we know how many congolese died? during four decades, it amounted to have half a million or maybe some million. but population decline does not mean, of course, murdering all these people. it means also, corporal punishments were given all round, so there was an extremely hard and inhumane labour regime and a repressive regime that was forced upon the congolese population. this is the legacy that princess esmeralda wrestles with. in belgium, i can tell you that nobody was learning about the colonial past. there was a lot of lies, a lot of myths, and that has to change. the present king, king philippe, has changed. he wrote a letter to president tshisekedi, of the democratic republic of congo, that he profoundly regrets what happened in the colonial period. when king philippe changed the position of belgium, was he speaking for himself as the king and the inheritor
but after he became king, he was asked by the government not to attend a climate conference. there is one clear and present issue that king charles will have to comment on at some point, and that is the legacy of britain s imperial past. this is brussels, in belgium, where the royal family is trying to come to terms with its own colonial past. the black lives matter protests that swept the world following the murder of george floyd were particularly effective in belgium. the country s record of extreme brutality in the congo under king leopold ii was under scrutiny. the current king of belgium, philippe, has recently issued a letter of regret for his ancestors actions, but it s only regret. his aunt, princess maria esmeralda, she has taken it a step further and has really dedicated herself to making amends. her highness frequently broadcasts on belgium s historical record during herfamily s era of empire.