By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
DAVOS/AMSTERDAM (Worthy News) – Queen Máxima of the Netherlands has come under fire for demanding that government and business leaders roll out “digital IDs” to ensure they can track persons’ “vaccination status” and other private information.
Máxima pushed her case for the global rollout of the electronic version of an individual’s identity at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The queen is the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA). “When I started this job, there were actually very little countries in Africa or Latin America that had one ubiquitous type of ID. And certainly, that was digital, and certainly that was biometric,” Máxima told a WEF panel discussion.
“We’ve really worked with all our partners to actually help grow this [digital UD], and the interesting part of it is that yes, it is very necessary for financial services, but not only,” she added.
“It’s also good for school enrollment, it’s good for health, who actually got a vaccination or not, it’s good to get your subsidies from the government,” the queen stressed.
Yet influential Dutch commentators questioned her remarks. “I believe that an unelected queen [linked to the Netherlands] by marriage should stay away from making these types of extremely controversial and restrictive statements. I hope that the [Dutch] House of Representatives [in Parliament] agree,” said Dutch author and speaker Hans van Tellingen.
CEREMONIAL FUNCTION
Raisa Blommestijn, an outspoken Dutch legal philosopher, publicist, and political commentator, agrees. “The Dutch royal family only has a ceremonial function,” she noticed.
“Her participation in the WEF can, therefore, be called nothing less than unconstitutional. Abolish that royal family,” Blommestijnwrote in comments seen by Worthy News.
That view was shared by Dutch data analyst Cees van den Bos. Referring to Maxima’s Argentina roots, he said: “You can take the girl out of the junta, but you can’t take the junta out of the girl.”
However, the queen defended her involvement in talks about what she views as “financial inclusion.”
Máxima disagrees that her royal engagements make her unfit for the UN job.
She stressed that as a queen, she is just working for the Netherlands government with outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte among the cabinet members attending the WEF meeting.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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