The Flemish not keen on Filip as king

23 July 2007

BRUSSELS – The Flemish do not fancy Prince Filip as their future monarch. They would prefer Princess Astrid to accede to the throne (40 %). In Wallonia, Filip can count on much stronger support ( 62 %). This emerges from a survey conducted by the VTM-magazine Royalty, who published the principal results in ‘Het Nieuws’.

The royalty survey shows that King Albert is getting more and more popular. His popularity has increased by 7 % to 35 %. Princess Mathilde can also count on more support than in the past. She gained in popularity by 4 % to 22 %.

The obvious loser in the survey is Prince Laurent. His popularity has declined, most probably due to the fuss around the navy fraud case, from 30 % to 17 %.

He has lost favour mainly among the Flemish. 65 % of whom find that he should no longer receive an allowance. In Wallonia the ‘enfant terrible’ of the Royal family has somewhat more support. There, one in three thinks that Laurent should no longer get an allowance.

Subject: Belgian news