Nearly forty MPs are not reading the Speech from the Throne in the Grote Kerk in The Hague on Tuesday. They have unsubscribed. It concerns MPs from several political groups.
Especially many VVDs and PVVs would be absent on Tuesday. At the VVD, according to a spokesperson, it is “a personal decision” whether or not to go.
“We have just received a message from the Outbreak Management Team,” said a spokesman for the Senate. He has briefly examined the measures against the spread of the corona virus. “Everything is good.” The ventilation of the Grote Kerk had already been checked earlier. That also turned out to be in order.
No Knight’s Hall
Due to the corona measures, the Speech from the Throne will not be read in the Ridderzaal this year, but in the larger Grote Kerk. Instead of the usual nine hundred guests, a maximum of 270 people can go there at a distance of 1.5 meters. The members of the Senate and House of Representatives would already occupy 225 places. The cabinet has decided to come and listen to the Speech from the Throne only with the ministers. The secretaries of state meet at a different location.
With some 40 MPs staying away, that doesn’t mean their places are being filled by others who have been left out. Nor will there be any empty seats to be seen tomorrow. All seats are further apart, according to the spokesperson. “That way we are even more corona proof.”
