Yesterday some yahoo made an attempt on the lives of the Dutch royal family during the queen’s birthday celebration ceremony by trying to ram his car into the coach in which they were driving. To get there the man litterally plowed through the fence and the spectators, resulting ultimately in 5 deaths and 12 injured before crashing into a national monument.
Seeing as this news has gone all over the world by now I thought it is worth commenting on.
Latest news on this is that the perp died in hospital last night from his extensive injuries. In a sense it’s a shame because he will never have to answer for his deeds to his peers. He will have to answer to God instead.
The motive of them man is a mystery. The Dutch royal family are compared to most royal families well-liked by their people. The vast majority of the Dutch (roughly 80%) support the monarchy or at least don’t mind it. The Dutch royal family is pretty down to earth and are much more connected to the society than for example the English royal family.They are not afraid to show emotions or get close to the common man.
Of course there are people who feel that the monarchy should be abolished (although most of them would not feel so strong as to crash their car into a crowd for it). It is true that the Dutch royal family costs a fair penny to maintain and the idea of a ‘special’ bloodline is idiocy of course. On the other hand, presidents also cost a fair bit of money and considering the royal family has a more ceremonial role the tradition of monarchy is a lot stronger.In my opinion the Dutch royal family is part of the Dutch identity and are doing a great job at being the ambassador of our country. Where the goverment is the brains of this country, the royal family is the hearts and soul of it.
Considering this background it’s hard to imagine why a person would willingly plow through a crowd with a speeding car, knowing he would probably kill some of them, just to crash his (way too small for the job) Suzuki Swift into the coach eludes all ratio. Now that the man has died the question why will never be answered. For those who lost loved ones I can imagine a desire to know why they had to lose them to this idiotic act. The rest of this country should not dwell on reason, though. From that knowledge only sympathy can come forth and this individual does not deserve any.
If there is anything positive to say about it, the people of holland don’t have to fork the 2 milion euros it would cost to incarcerate this guy for 30 years, not counting the cost of trial. It comes at a large cost though: our national holiday will never be the same.