Dutch King Abandons Using Royal Golden Carriage Depicting Slavery Painting

Dutch King Abandons Using Royal Golden Carriage Depicting Slavery Painting

Dutch King Willem-Alexander has made a decision to stop using the royal family's golden coach amid claims that the painting at the carriage's side praises the Netherlands' colonial past

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2022) Dutch King Willem-Alexander has made a decision to stop using the royal family's golden coach amid claims that the painting at the carriage's side praises the Netherlands' colonial past.

The carriage decorated with a painting named Tribute from the Colonies, picturing Black and Asian people, one of them kneeling, offering goods to a sitting white woman, an embodiment of the Netherlands.

"The golden carriage will only be able to drive again when the Netherlands is ready and that is not the case now," the king was cited as saying by Sky news broadcaster.

In the past, the couch was used in the procession of Dutch monarchs on the streets of The Hague on the parliament opening day in September of each year.

The announcement was made against the backdrop of harsh criticism of the carriage, induced by the Black Lives Matter movement, which called on the royal family to revisit its history as a colonialist power.

Nonetheless, the king stressed that the past cannot be rewritten, while the simple prohibition of historical symbols would not definitely solve the problem. Further reconciliation efforts he said are required to overcome division in the Dutch society.