Lurid, royal scandals are some of the most appealing problems in the world. Every nation should have a few. Proffering intrigue and scandal without bloody daggers (recently anyway), they are close to therapeutic. For the uninvolved, that is.
Artist Delphine Boël is deeply involved in a protracted dispute with the Belgian royal family that assertedly began in 1986 with a secret admission from her mother, the Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps. Claiming she is the illegitimate daughter of Albert II, ex-king of Belgium, Boël was snubbed and rebuffed by the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha clan, although they never officially denied it.
Boël wasn't the first to leak the possibility, but when a book written by a Flemish teenager publicly exposed the secret in 1999, she began to crusade for her case in court, media and through her art.
Her work is contemporary and striking, but nothing particularly unique – something between artsy, uptown bistro signs and largescale versions of the graphic messages floating across Facebook. Still Boël cleverly employs her neon proclamations and sculptural installations to a cause, and one of them is her own heritage,
Denying she is seeking regency, the artist is a far-off 15th in line of procession to the throne. Royal cash doesn't seem to be a draw either, as Delphine claims to be independently wealthy. So what are her motives?
Interviewing with French and Belgian media, Boël claimed she only wanted to heal wounds of family rejection but acknowledged it wouldn't be likely to improve bonds with her father. Not under duress, which makes this more of a war of wills. It's all about Boël's identity, a concern she shares with millions of non-royals who are uncertain of their parentage as well.
In 2013 the artist besieged Belgian courts with a series of aggressive legal maneuvers to prove her parentage one way or another. According to Belgian laws, the king cannot be compelled to court, and no man can be forced to take paternity tests there. So Boël hauled Albert's children into court. This embarrassment may be part of the reason King Albert abdicated in 2013.
Scintillating drama as it is, but a legal ruling last week in Boël's favor was strangely traditional in both language and tone. Sounding more 19th century blood and nationality, it may encourage conservatives and family advocates alike. Belgium's constitutional court almost reversed previous stands on privileges of legal paternity (as opposed to actual DNA).
They ruled that children have rights to know their genetic origins and that this trumps existing family ties, marriages and past legal rulings. According to Mercatornet (an excellent Australian publication) this may this may have "far-reaching implications" for fertility clinics. Sperm donors count on the promise of eternal privacy and a little cash to buy off their client's conscience, should they have one. These men will never have to confront the fruits of their body in the face of a broken-hearted child, and float off like salmon after spawning.
Anonymous sperm banks weren't Boël's concern, but this decision may rout the human sales business, or at least pull the blinds up and invite heated discussion. Previously Belgian law (and most Western nations) pushed an entirely social construction of "family" as trumping mere DNA. This made sense when the only issue was adoption, but the definition of "family" is mutating faster than courts can react.
Belgium's courts found that a child may fail to "develop his personality without having certainty about the identity of his biological father," even suffering into adulthood. Fury and gnashing of teeth is sure to follow if this is ever used to deny unmarried, unstable or same-sex couples any child they desire. The exact ruling (translated from French by Mercatornet):
In legal proceedings to establish parentage, the right of everyone to the establishment of parentage must therefore prevail in principle over the interest of family harmony and the legal security of family ties. (Constitutional Court of Belgium)
Who is going to tell Elton John he can't just pencil in his male lover-husband's name as the "mother" of his children? The prissy singer did this last year on the birth certificate of one of the sons he bought via sperm bank and anonymous surrogate. British feminist Germaine Greer flipped out over this and the entire media was horrified – over Greer of course.
Coincidentally this ruling was issued just as a massive ad crusade for new sperm bank donations blankets Belgium.
King Albert II is still unwilling to acknowledge Delphine Boël as his daughter, although she is determined to force it out of him. "I am deeply saddened, but I believe blood can work wonders," she claimed in 2013 press statement as she petitioned for DNA blood tests.
Legal experts at the time insisted she was barking up the wrong royal robes and threatening to destabilize the monarchy and government.
Boël hasn't been terribly winsome in her approach to the man who would be dad. Artworks that clearly reference King Albert are often vulgar and reproachful and not particularly filial.
One crudely done piece spells out an obscenity via first letters lined up in phrases: Fornicate Under Consent of the King. An installation that caused a lot of buzz was a neon birth announcement "Love Child" with a heart and crown. Or simply this: "I Exist."
Things may become very colorful should other nations defer to this more genetic and traditional approach to parenthood. Belgium is a member nation of the EU. Dialogue on abortion may be effected as well, when even the little lab deposits men leave at sperm banks are deemed worthy of human rights.
Belgians are now paying for progressive political mistakes with their lives, under a culture of politically sponsored death. Euthanasia laws allowed young adults to die because of a bad romance and now murder is imported via "immigrant" terrorists.
Cracks in the dark clouds over Belgium might make the indignities suffered by their royals worth something more than scandal fodder when the dust dies down.
Sources