30 April is Queen's Day in the Netherlands, our most popular national holiday. It's a jolly affair. The whole country is transformed into a fair ground. Amsterdam goes mad. And one town is selected for a visit by Queen Beatrix, who brings along the whole royal family. This year, they went to Apeldoorn.
As the open-decked bus carrying the royals drew up to the entrance of a small palace, a blond man driving a black Suzuki smashed through the barriers, killing and wounding several people. He missed the bus and crashed into a stone monument. Before he died, he said he had intended to attack the House of Orange. His reasons seemed more personal than political. He had recently lost his job as a security guard.
Visibly shocked, Beatrix went on television to express her sympathy with the victims and their families. Four days later it was Remembrance Day. On 4 May, the Queen always lays a wreath at the National Monument on Dam Square in Amsterdam. There were some doubts whether she would show up this year, so soon after the attack in Apeldoorn.
But she did. As the ceremony began, Job Cohen, the mayor of Amsterdam, addressed the crowd. He said: "Today we are particularly happy to have our queen with us." Then someone began to clap, and before long the whole crowd was applauding the monarch. This was not only unscripted, it was unheard of on Remembrance Day.
It was a rare moment of togetherness. That evening, during the customary two minutes of silence, I thought not only of the people killed in the war. I also thought about Beatrix. The hereditary monarchy is a silly way to appoint a head of state, but it has provided us with an amazing queen. Intelligent, brave, honest, diligent and caring, she is everything we seek but rarely find in our leaders. Republicans like to say they would choose Beatrix as their first president. I used to say that too. Today, I think we should keep the monarchy as long as it's working for us. Long live the Queen.
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