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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The King of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, traveled to Greece on vacation, Dutch news agency ANP reported on Friday, prompting criticism from several members of parliament for traveling during the coronavirus pandemic.
Although a holiday to Greece doesn’t violate any of the Netherlands’ lockdown rules, including new restrictions introduced this week amid one of Europe’s largest coronavirus outbreaks, the government has tried to discourage unnecessary travel.
“This is reckless and incomprehensible,” the agency quoted legislator Joost Sneller of the D-66 party, one of the partners in Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s governing coalition, as saying.
Rutte had urged the nation in a televised speech Tuesday “not to test the limits of the rules.”
“You can go on vacation, but then go to the place where you have reserved your cabin or hotel room and not move,” the prime minister said. “If you go abroad, your options are limited since there are few countries that want to have more of us.”
Willem-Alexander, who has a private villa in southern Greece, traveled on a government plane, ANP reported.
The Netherlands reported nearly 8,000 new coronavirus cases on Friday, a record.
A spokeswoman for the Royal House said she could not comment on the “private affairs of the monarch, and holidays are included in that.”
Willem-Alexander and his wife, Queen Máxima, apologized after a previous vacation in Greece, in August, after a photo was published showing how they were breaking social distancing guidelines on the island of Milos.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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