On a Palace Balcony
By GAVIN GORDON• Brussels KING BAUDOUIN of the Belgians started his reign under the happiest of auspices. The weather was good and the crowds large, loyal and enthusiastic. Though he took the oath unsurrounded by royal guests from abroad or, indeed, by members of his own family, the (strictly civil) ceremony passed without any adverse incident. Even the Communists, who had sponsored so unmannerly an interruption when he took the oath as Prince Royal in August last year, were on• this occasion silent.
There was, however, one-incident which, from the stand-point of the crowd, took some of the heartiness out of the prodeedings. This was the shortness of the young King's appearance on the Palace balcony. The many foreign visitors who were in Brussels and among the crowd thought it odd that authority should have found it necessary to take such elaborate precautions against incident To the Belgians, who had come from all over the country, it seemed less unusual to be herded behind wooden palisades in front of which stood a line of police, and in front of whom again there was a close, shoulder-to-shoulder line of troops. The troops were in battle-dress, and the weapons of, for example, the tommy-gun detachments had a look which was operational rather than ceremonial. The only escort in the pro- cession itself was a detachment of the magnificent mounted gendarmerie, in bearskins and ceremonial uniform, though their saddle-cloths still bore the device of King Leopold III.
When the short procession had covered its short route, and had safely entered the Palace, the iron gate was shut and the crowd allowed through the barricades. The wide roadway of the Place du Palais was completely filled, and the cheers were undoubtedly whole-hearted. Eventually two Palace servants spread a gold- and-purple cloth on the balcony, and King Baudouin appeared to take his people's cheers. He stood there for less than a minute, immobile, with his cap held aloft in his right hand. Then he withdrew ; and, after the crowd had called again and again for his reappearance, the cloth was rolled up and nothing was left on the grey facade but the dancing reflections of periscopes at the back of the crowd.
There was reason enough for the young King's failure to re- appear. It was just at this moment that the Prime Minister, Joseph Pholien, had chosen to call, a day earlier than protocol prescribed, to tender his Government's resignation and learn the King's wishes regarding their reappointment. For some time, therefore, affairs of State had a claim on the Sovereign's time and .attention. Nevertheless, the crowd did not know this, and the rolling-up of the balcony cloth was the signal for some—though -by no means all—of the cheers to turn to whistles.
• The people of Belgium have been spontaneous and open- hearted in their acceptance of their new King. Opinions about -King Leopold are still various and deeply held, but all are agreed there is nothing in this to derogate from the nation's loyalty to his son. Everybody remembers that King Baudouin is a son of the much-loved Princess Astrid, whose domestic cares in feeding the chickens in the Bellevue Palace necessitated the erection of frosted-glass windows so that clerks in the Ministry of Colonies might not be distracted from their work. Since then the people of Belgium have seen much less of the private life of their Royal • Family ; and, with the abdication j of King Leopold, they are • anxious to take King Baudouin to their hearts as they took his mother.
The disappointment, which was quite evident in the crowd in front of the Palace, may be a symptom of something deeper. It is certain that, though everybody has accepted the new King, and indeed been glad to do so, the enemies of King Leopold—who are indeed the present Parliamentary opposition—are watching the position very closely. It is an open secret that Max Buset, the President of the Socialist Party, refused to draft his speech for the abdication ceremony in terms which would have involved retracting the anti-Leopold propaganda which carried the day in the troublous summer of 1950. And, though King Baudouin has on many occasions paid sincere tributes to his father, it is reliably reported that the speech he was to have made at the moment of his father's abdication was drawn up in terms to which Buset took the strongest exception. However this may be, the speech was not delivere8.
Meantime, Paul-Henri Spaak, whose anti-Leopoldist role was even more active than Buses, has published an article in which he calls on the new King to exercise the greatest care in the choice of his entourage. Spaak hastens to add that the entourage are not the Crown's advisers, since this part is constitutionally played by the King's Ministers. Nevertheless, Spaak warns the country—and thus the King—against an inner Court clique, uneiampled in loyalty and devotion, among whom tradition and precedent count for more than the needs of modern constitutional monarchy.
It may be that Spaak's article comes close to the real rubs of the Belgian monarchical troubles. It is indeed true that the campaign against King Leopold was mainly based on the easily- understood points-which could be made out of his behaviour in 1940 and during the occupation and of his marriage to the Princesse de Rethy. Behind this, however, there was consistently an allegation by Spaak that the King had overridden the advice of his Ministers, not only in the (possibly military) decision to surrender with his Army, but also in matters of considered foreign policy. Though it is hard to envisage conditions in which such an accusation could again arise, the fact remains that the Belgian Constitution leaves a number of loop-holes through which vestiges of non-democratic monarchy could conceivably creep. The position raised by the King's commandership of his Army has been dealt with, as indeed it had to be as soon as Belgium confirmed her adherence to the Brussels Pact and the North Atlantic Treaty. On the other hand, the Constitution leaves it to the King to choose his Ministers ; and, on existing precedents and practices, there is no reason why this prerogative should not be a reality.
The King's freedom in the choice of his Ministers leaves the door open to the creation of an inner, or Palace-controlled, Government. How real this is it is impossible to say, but there have been critics who have compared the accession Of King Baudouin with that of Philip II after the abdication of Charles Quint, which also occurred in Brussels in 1555. The allegation is that King Baudouin is left, as Philip left Marguerite de Parme, with a constitutional machine of Government and an inner Consulta which carries the real weight without the political responsibility. The key to this position is the willingness of the King to accept the lists of Ministers proposed to him, after any change of Government, by the competent First Minister whom he has asked to form a Government.
This is a problem which older monarchies, and indeed republics, have solved each in its own way. Whether the position will ever arise of a Belgian Premier presenting names of Ministers who are not personae gratae remains to be seen. This may, of course, be an extreme case, and much will depend on the ability of all concerned to prevent its arising. Nevertheless, the young King is evidently an admirer of his father, and he may indeed have to overcome a serious qualm in his conscience if and when his people return him a Parliament from which his father's enemies emerge as the natural Ministers to choose.
There is thus a twofold problem confronting King Baudouin. First, there is the question of the steps he should take to allow the people of Belgium to consolidate and increase the natural and human affection they feel for him. Secondly, there is the question of interpreting in modern constitutional forms the responsibilities which are nominally left on the King's( shoulders. The two problems are not the same, but they are not wholly separate. The King is young ; and, though be cannot be expected to produce solutions overnight, his countrymen are anxiously looking for signs to show in what direction he is working.
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