Former King Albert unhappy with €900,000 a year

Since his abdication in 2013, Belgium's King Albert II receives an annual grant of €923,000 from the federal state. The former monarch is unhappy with the amount because it is less than the €1.4 million promised to him by former prime minister Elio Di Rupo, writes Knack.

Di Rupo revealed the information during an interview with RTBF, admitting that he wanted to award King Albert with a grant of €1.4 million following his resignation. "After all, he saved the country," said Di Rupo, in reference to the former king's efforts to mediate between political leaders on the formation of a government during the 2010-2011 parliamentary stalemate.

Deputy prime minister Alexander De Croo and his colleague Johan Vande Lanotte, however, found €1.4 million to be exaggateredly high and therefore got the total grant amount knocked down to just over €900,000 annually. King Albert is not amused with the pay cut, according to various Belgian media, and shows his dismay by hardly showing up anymore for official occasions.