Belgian royal says pay cut breaches his human rights

Scandal-prone prince is angered by threat to his allowance after he flouted ban on meeting dignitaries

BELGIUM’S “cursed prince” has complained that his human rights are being infringed after the Belgian government threatened to reduce his annual £280,000 allowance for flouting his ban on meeting foreign dignitaries.

Gaffe and scandal-prone Prince Laurent was summoned to a dressing down from Charles Michel, the Belgian prime minister, for breaking the ban, imposed after a string of unapproved meetings, but sent a sick note instead.

The wayward royal, brother to King Philippe, was caught after tweeting a photo of himself in full naval uniform at the Chinese Embassy in Brussels during a party to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Red Army. Mr Michel is threatening to cut the prince’s stipend by 15 per cent, but yesterday it emerged “Le Prince Maudit” had gone on the attack.

Laurent’s lawyer sent Mr Michel a seven-page missive that argued the government ban infringed his fundamental human rights because it would condemn him to “social isolation”.

That would amount to a breach of Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, the letter claimed, before alleging that the Belgian government’s public announcement of the prince’s punishment was 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,” said the letter, which has sparked widespread incredulity in Belgium.

Cutting his salary would deprive the 54-year-old prince, whose wife is British, and his family of “all livelihoods”, according to the letter, which suggests awarding the royal “social security or pension rights”.

Prince Laurent, who claims to be suffering from stress brought on by the row, said he would give the government 10 days’ notice of any meetings with any foreign officials rather than accept the cut.

The prince, who was a helicopter pilot after training in the army and navy, is barely on speaking terms with the rest of Belgium’s royal family.

In 2015 Laurent, youngest son of the former king and queen, Albert II and Paola, said on television: “My family has never supported me. It started with my uncle, King Baudouin. Then with my father, Albert II. With them it was like the Stasi. Today, I have the impression it continues with my brother, King Philippe.”

In 2011, Prince Laurent had his stipend slashed after embarking on an illadvised venture with the son of Libya’s dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

In 2014, he was forced to pay back £14,500 after invoicing the state for supermarket bills, skiing holidays and his children’s school fees. The prince, who has numerous speeding fines and a driving ban on his record, has a reputation for bluntness that earned him the sobriquet “Belgium’s Prince Philip”.