PM has moved to slash royal’s €380,000 endowment after he was criticised for appearance at Chinese state event

A wayward brother of the king of Belgium has claimed the government is violating his human rights after the prime minister moved to cut his annual €308,000 (£280,000) government endowment.

The prime minister, Charles Michel, called a meeting with Prince Laurent, younger sibling to King Philippe, in response to his unauthorised appearance in full naval uniform at a Chinese state celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Red Army.

Laurent sent a sick note to excuse himself from the meeting about the incident, the latest in a series of unapproved events with foreign dignitaries.

But in a seven-page letter handed to the Belgian prime minister by the prince’s lawyer, Laurent, 53, went on the attack, claiming the government’s attempts to limit his meetings with the representatives of foreign states amounted to a breach of article 8 of the European convention on human rights as it would force him into “social isolation”.

The leaked letter goes on to suggest that the government’s announcement of action against the prince before he has had a chance to defend himself is illegal.

“It goes without saying that the court of human rights would make short work of such violations of the right to a fair trial,” the lawyer writes.

Laurent’s lawyer insists that “in humiliating ways” the prince has been stopped all his life from getting a job, in a manner damaging to his “image and, dare I add, his health”.

“In this traditional view, a prince was not allowed to work (it would testify to ‘a desire for money’, a reproach that some people dare to repeat today, which is the world upside down!),” the lawyer writes.

The letter adds that the questioning of the prince’s endowment in the media has caused “great uncertainty for the prince and his family, contrary to fundamental rights”, and the state should now offer some “social security or pension rights”.

Laurent’s camp said that rather than cut his endowment by up to 15% as suggested – which would in effect “deprive him and his family of all livelihoods” – the royal could in future commit to giving the government 10 days’ notice of any intended meetings with foreign officials.

Laurent’s previous diplomatic freelancing has involved jetting off to see President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who, after 16 years in power, refuses to stand down on the grounds that the country cannot afford elections.



He also enjoyed frequent visits to Libya between 2008 and 2010, where he had been hoping to go into business with one of Muammar Gaddafi’s sons. Laurent was given a final warning last December after he went on an unauthorised visit to see the prime minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The prince’s letter has caused uproar in Belgium, where Laurent had until now been warmly regarded as an eccentric but harmless figure.

His appearance at the Chinese embassy in Brussels to celebrate the founding of the People’s Liberation Army earlier this year might have gone unnoticed had he not tweeted a picture of himself at the ceremony.



Theo Francken, a senior government minister from the Flemish nationalist party, suggested the prince needed to live up to his responsibilities. “If you break the vase, you pay for it,” he said.

The country’s interior minister, Jan Jambon, said: “Perhaps the law should be clarified to him [the prince]. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but everyone is also bound by the legislation.”

Barend Leyts, a spokesman for the Belgian prime minister, declined to be drawn on the prince’s allegations. “As the prime minister has announced in parliament, the case is being examined legally,” he said.

Last year, after a critical report from the Belgian court of audit, the financial watchdog for the country’s public institutions, Laurent was forced to repay €16,000 to the Belgian state for claiming expenses for a ski holiday, supermarket bills and the school fees of his three children.

The youngest son of the former king and queen Albert II and Paola has previously taken to Belgian television to attack his family, with whom he is barely on speaking terms, claiming they are like the Stasi secret police and have sought to sabotage his career. “My family has never supported me,” he complained.

In 2011, Laurent, who trained in the army and navy before becoming a helicopter pilot, lost his driver’s licence after being caught speeding at 20mph above the limit through Brussels in his Fiat Abarth Punto.

The prince, whose wife is British, declared there should be “a special licence for those driving a fast car”.