King Willem-Alexander Current Events 4: Aug 2023 -

[Somebody]

Today several documents of advise shared with the minister by civil servants (about a controversial ‘crisis law’) were made available at the request of the Second Chamber. In one of those a timeline was given for how long various aspects in the legal process would take. It mentioned that on average it would take a week for a royal decree to be signed by the king - dependent on availability… I would have thought that this part of the process would take only a day or 2.

 

[Marengo]

According to the website of the cabinet of the King, he receives these laws daily. I don't know if he simply reads and signs them or if he actually consults the cabinet of the King f.e. on certain pieces.

Still, it is rather long considering it is an emergency law, supposed to be used during an emergency -a war or a grave natural disaster- when there is little time to be lost.

Queen Beatrix said that she saw her signature as a sign that the democratic process was followed correctly. Not that she necessarily agreed with the content of such laws and decrees. With the emergency law -if it ever comes about, which is far from certain- that will be less clear. Hypothetically I suppose the King cán refuse to sign a law, however such a refusal would result in a constitutional crises of such an enormity we have not seen since the days of Willem III and is therefore more theoretical than realistic.

It is not likely the emergency law will pass anyway, they seem to be moving to a 'spoedwet' (urgency law?)

Wetten en besluiten ter tekening voorleggen

De Grondwet bepaalt dat de Koning en één of meer ministers of staatssecretarissen alle wetten en Koninklijke Besluiten ondertekenen. Het Kabinet van de Koning legt deze stukken dagelijks aan de Koning voor en informeert hem over de inhoud ervan.

www.kabinetvandekoning.nl

 

[Somebody]

I guess it is the ‘average’ for royal decrees - I assume in a real emergency the king and his cabinet would make sure it would be signed asap.