The Netherlands celebrates King’s Day | The time

Today the Dutch celebrate King’s Day with traditional festivities and ‘free markets’. The traditional protest against King Willem-Alexander’s grants also resonates.

The Netherlands celebrates King’s Day on Saturday, the birthday of King Willem-Alexander, who turns 57. Parties, music performances and traditional ‘free markets’, flea markets, are organized throughout the country. The Royal family celebrates the holiday in Emmen in the province of Drenthe, where a 2-hour procession is planned.

The anti-monarchist movement Republic demonstrated in Emmen on Saturday morning. The republican resistance movement wants the monarch to earn a lot less and to pay income, inheritance and gift taxes. Instead of the 1.1 million euros that Willem-Alexander now receives annually from the Dutch government coffers, according to Republic, the king does not have to earn more than the so-called Balkenende norm, which caps top wages in the (semi) public sector. This is now around 233,000 euros per year.

The Netherlands celebrates King’s Day at a time when the Amsterdam stock exchange is soaring. Last week the AEX

, the index with the largest listed Dutch companies, a record at 884 points. On Friday, another billion-dollar company, the investment company CVC, created

a successful debut on the price tables.