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I suppose they can vote blanco, which would be advisable perhaps.
To me it's still weird to see a king voting... I know he is no longer a reigning monarch but the custom that even direct heirs (and in that same line but slightly less problematic former sovereigns) vote to me undermines their impartiality which is an essential part of a monarchical system imo.
As to the last bit,yes,if that involves the Reigning Monarch,and only then.
But Filip is not to vote,his dad is and he is of no importance in the matter,
a citizen with rights and duties like everyone else.
Filip voted as direct heir. Just like Elisabeth and Guillaume vote nowadays, that to me is contrary to the system that singles them out as the next impartial head of state. Hopefully they indeed vote blanco (maybe they should announce so?!).
No,they don't have to announce anything,the vote,if they did so,is private and everybodies right,except for the Reigning Monarch as I explained before.There's nada contrary about the right to vote for anyone but the Reigning Monarch.
I never said they have to explain, I, however, would recommend they vote blanco and announce so (in systems where voting is an obligation - in any other case: just don't vote).
There was no need to explain as I know how it works but disagree that the system should be this way. In my opinion these things don't go well together. How can a Sovereign be impartial if until a day before he becomes monarch it is perfectly fine to vote (it's still the same person). Theoretically, he/she (because of a birth right) could be leading the process of forming a government while he/she himself voted for one of these parties. That doesn't sound impartial to me. If you want a partial/political head of state, that's fine too but that's not the basic principal of a monarchy.
Of course I understand that monarchs have their opinions but asking heirs to vote means asking them to support one political party over another while one of the premises of the current system is that they do exactly the opposite once monarch.
Although I personally think that heirs shouldn't vote either, I guess the key point is that, technically, the heir only takes part in the government formation process after he becomes king, so expressing a private partisan preference by casting a secret ballot while he is still the crown prince is not such a big deal.
Isn't the queen consort also allowed to refrain from voting? In contrast to the heir, she has no expectation of ever taking part in the government of the kingdom, so I am not sure why her nonpartisanship is more safeguarded than the heir's.
Albert and Paola celebrated their diamond jubilee yesterday apparently.
It was the reason for King Philippe not to attend the broadcast of TV show Vive le velo which was aired from the gardens of Laeken.
https://m.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20190707_04498434
Hopefully, it is an indication that King Philippe and King Albert II are once more on speaking terms.
Have they ever been not on speaking terms ?
Edit: I just saw Wim Dehandschutter on BlauwBloed who claims that there is no private contact at all between Albert and Philippe.
I recall discussion here regarding period(s) of stopped contact between them. I think this may be the post uppermost in my recollection: