Between 1999 and 2001, the Government of the Netherlands worked hard to prevent a constitutional crisis that would have affected the Crown. A documentary broadcast this week by the public broadcaster BNNVARA indicates that Prince William of Orange was willing to give up the throne so as not to lose his girlfriend, the young Argentine Máxima Zorreguieta, today the queen consort. The image fits the figure of a lover who sees his happiness in danger due to the past of his future father-in-law: Jorge Zorreguieta, who was Secretary of State for Agriculture in the dictatorship of General Jorge Videla (1976-1983). But the television program also maintains that the State Attorney General deactivated in 2001 a lawsuit filed against him for crimes against humanity. And he wonders who commissioned, behind the Government’s back, a report on his past when Máxima was still unknown outside the Royal House.
titled Een porseleinen huwelijk (a porcelain wedding), the documentary consists of four chapters broadcast as a miniseries between January 31 and February 3. Its leaders —Hans Hermans and Martin Maat— present for the first time personal notes from politicians and diplomats involved in high-voltage negotiations. Guillermo and Máxima met in Seville in April 1999, and at the end of August the public television network (NOS) revealed that the crown prince had a girlfriend. Already then there was talk of the political past of the father of the current queen consort. In 2000, the first criticisms arose regarding the possible entry of a former politician from the Argentine dictatorship within the Royal House. The situation took a turn in March, when Maarten Mourik, a former diplomat, filed a lawsuit against Jorge Zorreguieta – who died in 2017 – for crimes against humanity “to protect the Crown”, as he explained.
The program indicates that the lawsuit was not seen in court due to the intervention of Joan de Wijkerslooth, then Attorney General of the State. Two sources from the tax dome itself, who remain anonymous, have declared to the directors of the series that in 2001 “a legal precedent was created to be able to remove the lawsuit against Zorreguieta father from the table.” Before the cameras, Liesbeth Zegveld, one of the lawyers in charge of the frustrated case, declares that “everything became a political issue, as we already knew. And the law was an obstacle.”
In the Dutch moral framework, heir to what happened during the Nazi occupation in World War II, the presence of Jorge Zorreguieta in a government responsible for the disappearance of thousands of people is synonymous with foute mensen. That is, those who collaborated with the wrong side. The simile is from Michiel Baud, the expert in Latin America commissioned by the Executive to analyze the trajectory of the father of the bride. The conclusion is that although he was not involved in the crimes, it is inconceivable that he was ignorant of the situation in his country. He could not, therefore, attend the wedding. The news surprised Queen Beatrix, mother of Prince William, in 2001. His son reacted upset and hurt. Carel ter Linden, the Protestant preacher who married the couple in Amsterdam on February 2, 2002, assures in the series that Guillermo seemed willing to “give up the throne for love.” It was then necessary to convince Jorge Zorreguieta that he should be absent from the link. He resisted, despite the fact that the couple needed Parliament’s permission to marry. He saw no impediment because of his career, because he was a civilian politician, not a military man.
Throughout the story a question is raised, still without a clear answer. He refers to the first report on Zorreguieta Sr., who has already ruled out his personal involvement in human rights violations. Prepared behind the back of the Government, it is from August 1999. At that time, only the royal family and the closest friends knew of the presence of their daughter Máxima in the life of Prince William. In September, the Social Democrat Wim Kok, then Prime Minister, asked the Minister of the Interior, responsible for the intelligence services, for explanations. He didn’t know anything either. From that moment, maximum discretion was imposed. The documentary’s researchers have found the report in the personal legacy of Max van der Stoel — the politician and diplomat who spoke with Jorge Zorreguieta — which is kept in the National Archives. “In 2003, it was learned that the second commission was made by the director of the sovereign’s cabinet,” the documentary indicates.
In the narration it is clear how much it cost Crown Prince William to accept that Parliament could deny him permission to marry. At the same time, the initial incredulity of the bride in the face of the crimes of the Argentine dictatorship, which seemed terrible to her, although she assured that she was unaware of them, is underlined. When his father told him he didn’t know either, he believed him. The knot was undone when he accepted in writing that he would not attend: his daughter was able to marry and his son-in-law kept the crown.
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