page_title: Monarchy of the Netherlands
section_title: The monarch and the States-General
hierarchical_section_title: Monarchy of the Netherlands / The monarch and the States-General
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Koninklijke troon in de Grote Zaal van de Ridderzaal in Den Haag English: Royal throne in the Great Hall of the Ridderzaal in The Hague, the Netherlands
context_page_description: The monarchy of the Netherlands is the constitutional monarchy of the Netherlands. As such, the role and position of the monarch are defined and limited by the Constitution of the Netherlands. Consequently, a large portion of it is devoted to the monarch; roughly a third of the document describes the succession, mechanisms of accession and abdication to the throne, the roles and responsibilities of the monarch and the formalities of communication between the States General and the role of the monarch in the creation of laws.
  The Kingdom of the Netherlands has been an independent monarchy since 16 March 1815, but its one-time sovereign provinces had been intermittently "governed" by members of the House of Orange-Nassau and the House of Nassau from 1559, when Philip II of Spain appointed William of Orange as stadtholder, until 1747. William became the leader of the Dutch Revolt and the independent Dutch Republic. As stadtholder, he was followed by several of his descendants. In 1747, the function of stadtholder became a hereditary position in all Provinces of the thus "crowned" Dutch Republic. The last stadtholder was William V. His son became the first king as William I.
context_section_description: The one branch of government in which the monarch has no direct part is the legislative branch, formed by the States-General of the Netherlands. This parliamentary body consists of two chambers, the House of Representatives (also commonly referred to as Parliament) and the Senate.
  As in most parliamentary democracies the States-General are dually responsible for overseeing the government in its executive duties as well as approving proposals of law before they can become actual laws. In this respect, it is vital for the government to maintain good relations with the States-General and technically the monarch shares that effort (although the monarch never officially speaks to members of the States-General on policy matters due to ministerial responsibility).
  Constitutionally, the monarch deals with the States-General in three areas: lawmaking, policy outlining at the opening of the parliamentary year and dissolution.
  Of the three, policy outlining is the most straightforward. The parliamentary year is opened on the third Tuesday of September with a joint session of both houses. At this occasion the monarch addresses the joint states in a speech in which he sets forth the outlines for his government's policies for the coming year (the speech itself is prepared by the ministers, their ministries and finally crafted and approved by the prime minister). This event is mandated by the constitution in Article 65. Tradition has made more of this occasion than a policy speech though, and the event known as Prinsjesdag has become a large affair with much pomp and circumstance, in which the States-General and other major bodies of government assemble in the Ridderzaal to hear the King deliver the speech from the throne after having arrived from the Noordeinde Palace in his golden carriage. Both in constitutional aspects and in ceremony the event has much in common with both the British State Opening of Parliament and the American State of the Union.
  Lawmaking is the area in which the monarch has the most frequent involvement with the States-General (although in fact he has very little to do with it in practice). Laws in the Netherlands are primarily proposed by the government and can be proposed "by or on behalf of" the monarch (this phrase is repeated often in the constitution). Technically this means that the monarch may propose laws in person, hearkening back to the days of the first monarchs of the Netherlands when the monarchs really could and did propose laws. However, this possibility is at odds with ministerial responsibility and the queens have always avoided the issue by never proposing laws in person. The monarch must still sign proposals into law though, a historical deference to the fact that the law of the land is decreed by the monarch.
  While the monarch has no practical involvement anymore in lawmaking other than a signature at the end, one might get a different impression from reading the communication between the government and the States-General regarding proposals of law and the laws themselves. All communication from the States-General to the government is addressed to the monarch and communication in the opposite direction formally is from the monarch (it is also signed by the monarch, without a ministerial countersignature – such communication is not a decision or decree, so does not require a countersignature). The formal language still shows deference to the position of the monarch, with a refusal of the States-General to approve a proposal of law for example becoming "a request to the King to reconsider the proposal". The constitution prescribes a number of the forms used:
  If the government accepts a proposal of law and signs it into law, the language is that "The King accedes to the proposal".
  If the government refuses a proposal of law, the language is that "The King shall keep the proposal under advisement".
  A law, once passed, is formulated in such a way as to be decreed by the monarch.
  The final involvement of the monarch with the States is dissolution. Constitutionally, the government is empowered to 
caption: The throne of the Ridderzaal, from which the Dutch monarch delivers the Throne Speech on Prinsjesdag.
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