Prince's Day

A national holiday in former days – celebrating the Prince of Orange’s birthday (hence its name) – Prinsjesdag nowadays is the most important day of the parliamentary year. The government sets out its plans for the coming year in the so-called Queen’s Speech (de Troonrede) and the Budget Memorandum.

The Queen’s Speech
Every year on Prince's Day, Queen Beatrix travels in the Golden Coach from the Noordeinde Palace to the Hall of Knights in The Hague. There she, as head of state and member of the government, delivers the so-called Queen’s Speech before a joint meeting of both chambers of the Dutch parliament, unveiling the government’s legislative programme for the coming year.

Budget Memorandum and National Budget
After the official state ceremony in the Hall of Knights the Minister of Finance will present his famous Third-Tuesday-of-September-Briefcase to the President of the House of Representatives, in the plenary meeting hall of the House. This briefcase contains the Budget Memorandum and the National Budget. The latter consists of a number of bills (one for each ministry) with regard to national expenditure, obligations and national revenue for the coming year. The Budget Memorandum is a policy paper in which the government looks ten years back and four years ahead.

Overall Political Debate
Before the Cabinet can carry out its plans, Parliament must consider and adopt them. That is why, after Prinsjesdag, the House of Representatives will set out to consider the National Budget and the Budget Memorandum. First, the House holds a so-called overall political debate about the impact of the government’s proposals on Dutch society. That debate generally goes on for two days.

The overall political debate is followed by the overall financial debate, in which the financial experts of the various political groups represented in Parliament will debate with the Minister of Finance about the National Budget. Over the next two months each cabinet minister will defend their own budget in Parliament.