Belgium: prince says his human rights will be breached by pay cut

A wayward brother of the king of Belgium claimed that his human rights are being violated by the government, when the prime minister reduced his annual €308,000 government endowment.

Charles Michel, the prime minister, called a meeting with Prince Laurent, the younger brother of King Philippe, in response to his unauthorised appearance in full naval uniform at a Chinese state celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Red Army.

Laurent passed on a sick note to excuse himself from the meeting regarding the incident, the latest move in a series of unapproved events with foreign dignitaries.

In a seven-page letter handed to the Belgian prime minister, by the prince’s lawyer, Laurent, attacked, claiming that the government’s attempts to limit his meetings with the representatives of foreign states amounted to a breach of article eight, of the European convention on human rights, as it would force him into “social isolation.”

The published letter went on to suggest that the government’s announcement of action against the prince is illegal, seeing as he has not had the chance to defend himself.

“It goes without saying that the court of human rights would make short work of such violations of the right to a fair trial,” the lawyer wrote.

Laurent’s lawyer insists that “in humiliating ways” the prince has been stopped all his life from getting a job, in a manner damaging to his “image and, dare I add, his health”.

“In this traditional view, a prince was not allowed to work (it would testify to ‘a desire for money’, a reproach that some people dare to repeat today, which is the world upside down!),” the lawyer writes.

The letter added that the questioning of the prince’s endowment in the media caused “great uncertainty for the prince and his family, contrary to fundamental rights”, and the state should now offer some “social security or pension rights”.

Laurent’s camp said that rather than cut his endowment by up to 15% as suggested – which would in effect “deprive him and his family of all livelihoods” – the royal could in future commit to giving the government 10 days’ notice of any intended meetings with foreign officials.

The prince’s letter caused uproar in Belgium, where Laurent has until now been warmly regarded as an eccentric but harmless figure.

His appearance at the Chinese embassy in Brussels to celebrate the founding of the People’s Liberation Army might have gone unnoticed had he not tweeted a picture of himself attending the ceremony.