De Wever calls for a purely ceremonial monarchy

While he had claimed on Wednesday not to feel like the implicit target of the king’s Christmas address, Bart De Wever went on a media offensive yesterday. Among his many statements – in print, on the radio and on television -  were reminders of the monarch’s duty to remain 100 percent neutral with regards to politics, adding that democracy and a political monarchy were mutually exclusive concepts. De Wever said that the monarch should have a purely ceremonial role and to stop playing any part in the nomination of a Prime Minister or the formation of a government. Ever the historian, he gave the example of Leopold III, Albert II’s father, who had “taken liberties with his duty to remain neutral, had wanted to make political decisions and, in doing so, had brought the country to the brink of civil war”.