The king is now just a completely normal Belgian, so he has to allow himself to be insulted. The Belgian Constitutional Court overturned the offense of lese majesty on Thursday, the reason being that it was not compatible with the right to freedom of expression, thus violating the constitution and also the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition, it is no longer appropriate to protect a king more strongly than ordinary people. The Monarch Protection Act of 1847 threatened a truly formidable prison sentence of between six months and three years, for comparison: the criminal law provides for between eight days and two months in prison for ordinary insults. Anyone who insults Philippe must now also expect that. In case anyone should bother.
It is not that the people of Belgium are pressed to get upset about their king. At most, stubborn Flemish separatists do that, rejecting the royal family as such. Otherwise, the relationship between the Belgians and their completely unglamorous royal family is characterized by pragmatism and disinterest. Very few feel “Belgian” at all. You’re a Flemish, Walloon or Brussels native. In theory, the royal family should form a bracket for the torn country, but in practice this rarely succeeds. Philippe’s predecessor Albert II, in office from 1993 to 2013, was an exception – and also a role model in dealing with insults of majesty.
In the turmoil surrounding the monstrous crimes of Marc Dutroux, Albert earned respect across all regional borders. The country was in shock at the failure of the police and judiciary, and the government wanted to sit out the affair. But the king invited the bereaved and victims of the murderer and sex offender, he publicly showed sympathy. A book published in 2001 alleged that the king himself was involved in the case. He belonged to a pedophile ring around Marc Dutroux and his wife. That would have been a classic libel case, but Albert’s lawyer considered the relevant law questionable even then. He went the civil law route. The king received financial compensation and the book had to be withdrawn from circulation.
The court ruling is a victory for Spanish rapper Valtònyc
Belgian lawyers do not know of any recent case in which “lese majesty” was negotiated. Rather, the reason for the verdict of the Constitutional Court is a new Spanish extradition proceedings against the rapper Valtònyc. He sought refuge in Belgium in 2018 after being sentenced to three and a half years in prison in Spain for libel and glorification of terrorism. The Belgian court, which now has to decide on the extradition of Valtònyc, wanted to clarify in advance whether the lese majesty is still legally relevant. So Thursday’s saying is a victory for the rapper. Valtònyc could only be extradited if the Spanish criminal offense also applies in Belgium.
Support for the Spanish rapper Valtònyc 2018 in Mallorca, at that time he was convicted.
(Photo: Stei / dpa)
No other Western European country is as persistent as Spain against “lese majesty”. The basis is the “Law for the Protection of the Security of the State and Citizens”, also known as the “Muzzle Law”, which was passed in 2015 under the conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and is used to criminalize social protests. The imprisonment of the rapper Pablo Hasél caused a sensation at the beginning of this year. The Catalan musician had also been convicted of glorifying terrorism and insulting the royal family.
In Germany, after the dispute over Jan Böhmermann’s humiliating poem against the Turkish head of state Erdoğan, the so-called libel of majesty paragraph 103 was deleted. He made denigrating organs and representatives of foreign organs a criminal offense. In the German penal code, however, there is still paragraph 90, denigration of the Federal President, punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years. If you look at the current European jurisprudence, it also seems out of date.