The new coronavirus variant has had an immediate effect on royal diaries, causing several trips to be postponed. What was supposed to be a three-day Belgian state visit to Italy this week has been delayed and instead, on December 1st 2021, King Philippe paid a brief visit to Rome.
In view of the sudden deteriorating health situation in Belgium and Europe, it was decided, in consultation with the Italian authorities, to postpone the planned state visit to Italy to a later date. Instead, King Philippe paid a visit of just a few hours to the Italian capital to show his support for strengthening ties between the two countries.
The king was invited by Italian President Sergio Mattarella. He met him in the Palazzo del Quirinale. According to Belgian media, King Philippe thanked the president for the support from Italy during the floods last summer.
After that, the king met Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, one of the candidates who may succeed Mattarella as president next year. The king spoke to him about, among other things, how the country has recovered economically since the outbreak of the pandemic.
King Philippe left Rome just hours later. It’s not known when he and Queen Mathilde will return for their State Visit. That trip has now been cancelled three times because of the pandemic. The visit was originally planned for March 2020, but a month earlier the coronavirus crisis broke out in Europe and so the State Visit was put back to December 2020. That was also postponed. At the end of October 2021, the Belgian Royal Court announced new dates of the State Visit but on November 27th, confirmation came that it had been put back again.
The Belgian monarch himself has close ties to the Italian Republic. The king is himself half Italian trough his mother, Queen Paola, who was born in Tuscany as the seventh and youngest child of Fulco, Prince Ruffo di Calabria the 6th Duke of Guardia Lombarda.
