Chips with everything

Potatoes for all

Image: King Philippe of the Belgians, seated upon an over-decorated piece of furniture. By Guy Goossens - https://www.senate.be/event/20130721_eedaflegging/fr/slides/IMG_3603.html, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113445108

It starts to sound like some comedy show. You can hear the cries of derision and the mocking of outsiders. But, this is Belgium and this is my community and, in all the neoliberal noise that is crowding out the little people, here is a story that at least gives a sign that we are privileged in this country to have administration that understands and cares even if it is technically powerless: right the way to the throne.

Oh, Ney, Ney, Ney: the throne? Do you know what the throne is, Ney? The throne is an over-decorated piece of furniture. It’s what’s behind the throne that counts. My brains, my ambitions, my desires, my hope, my imagination, and, above all, my will.

(Rod Steiger as Napoleon in the film Waterloo (1970)).

We can’t know whether Napoleon Bonaparte ever said these actual words to Marshal Ney on 20 April 1814. But they are words that the script writer of that magnificent film imagines Napoleon might well have said as Ney told his emperor, “You must give up the throne.”

There is one slight interpretive adjustment I might make to that speech by Steiger: whereas he speaks of his own brains, ambitions, desires, hope, imagination and will as being what lies behind the throne, one must not forget the brains, ambitions, desires, hope, imagination and will that lie before it. A ruler’s prime duty in ruling is to inspire in the hearts and minds of those whom they rule the very same qualities they themselves need to possess in doing their ruling. Only then do they rule effectively; only then are they loved and respected by their people, and held in due esteem.

According to a report by RTBF, on Sunday, a farmer from Ath drove his tractor into one of the prime sightseeing attractions of Brussels, its Grand’ Place, and unceremoniously dumped on the ancient cobblestones a trailer-load of potatoes. He was arrested by the police, and spent the night in the clink. His tractor and trailer were confiscated and placed into the vehicle pound. The farmer’s name is Aurélien Holvoet, and he has now been freed and recovered his vehicle from the police. His fellow agriculturalists have raised 28,000 euros in a whip-round to offset his financial prejudice.

The reason for his stunt was his, and many farmers’, opposition to an agreement between the European Union, of which Belgium is a member, and Mercosur, an economic union of South American countries, which, he says, will be harmful to his livelihood and jeopardise his very existence. His wife, Marine, puts it like this:

“We have expressed our feelings of injustice and unfair competition from Mercosur countries, which will be able to export products to us that we are not allowed to produce in Belgium according to our health and environmental standards. The main goal of our action was not to ask for clemency, but to make the demands of the agricultural sector heard.”

Sometimes a stunt is what’s needed in order to focus the public’s, oh, so short attention span on matters of bare existence for others of their countrymen. And one ear in particular has been cocked to the plaint of Marine and Aurélien: that of the king.

The phrase that Marine uses may come over strange: The main goal was not to ask for clemency, but they have petitioned the king for clemency further to the legal repercussions of their act. King Philippe has agreed to hear their petition. And that is the sum total of what this article is about. He has not as yet granted their petition; and he treads a somewhat awkward path between upholding the law of the land and taking pity on the hardships suffered by one of his people’s industrial sectors.

When the River Vesdre burst its banks in 2020 owing to torrential rain and an injudicious opening of the sluice gates upstream at a man-made dam, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde came to Verviers to see what help was being given to the poor inhabitants who’d lost so much in the devastation that had ensued. To celebrate his 10th year on the throne, King Philippe, who had assiduously learned the piano, played a concert piece in the park in front of the Royal Palace in Brussels. The King and Queen play up their full role as promoters of Belgian commerce by leading trade delegations around the world. In a speech given in 2023 on our country’s national day, he was the first constitutional monarch in the world to speak of Gaza as a disgrace to humanity.

Some Americans are adamant in their insistence that the USA should have no kings. Well, we in Belgium are proud of ours. The question is not whether you are ruled by a king or not, but how that king rules: with his brains, with his ambitions, with his desires, his hope, his imagination and his will.

With his humanity.