Ka-Ching!: The Royal Family Spent Nearly 114,000 Kroner A Day in 2012: Even the Swedish Court Thinks They're Nuts

Hey, Lene, you got a problem on your hands. Not only do your bosses spend outrageous amounts of money on a daily basis (perhaps it is justifiable - why don't you put out a press release giving details? Surely you have nothing to hide!). But even the head of the Swedish royal court has said it is obscene that the Danish royals accept cars as gifts! And our old friend Jens Høvgaard gets back in on the action of discussing the royal disconnect; he is quoted in the second article below.

This entitlement culture among the royals for their freebies has got to end immediately. Additionally, the royals should pay VAT tax no differently from any other Dane; their VAT refunds have made the news before. At the least, the state would save millions of kroner in administrative fees for the processing of their receipts. It would be nice to see how these costs are broken down. Daisy and Henrik spend the most by far, followed by Fred and MoreMore, with Joachim and Marie bringing up the rear with only (!) 5,000 kroner/day, or about $860 US/day. Both brothers have four kids - Joachim is paying for private education for two - but there is a strong discrepancy between their spending with the Derfies spending much more. Hm, one wife wears Hugo Boss, Prada and Christian Louboutin and the other is about as unfashion-conscious as you can get while still being appropriately dressed.

Daisy's apanage doesn't go toward taking care of any of her palaces (she and Henrik own Marselisborg and Cayx outright and every other royal residence is owned and maintained by the state), but she has to pay salaries to a fairly large court, including the overpaid Lene Balleby, and must maintain high cost items such as royal stables (horses, grooms, uniforms, etc., even if some costs are shared by a military budget) and the Dannebrog (a delightfully elegant if completely unsustainable expense for basically six people - the docking fees in London for the Olympics last summer alone must have been astronomical). As has been exposed by Daisy's chef who quit in protest several years ago for having to prepare microwave meals, she is actually quite cheap at times. She's frugal with her clothing choices and no matter how much she may smoke or require art supplies for her painting and découpage, none of those hobby things cost that much. Petrol is a negligible cost when your cars are either free (more Derf and Yrma) or older (Daisy mostly uses older Bentleys and Rolls Royces that have been around for a while). So, Daisy's expenses - as the head of state - might be rather justifiable and legitimate.

So that brings us back to the Derfie-Doodles who've been called before out for their lack of duty, as well as their spending. The drum beats are getting louder. Just think of all the freebies that come their way, as described in the bottom article posted here: free clothes, cars, airplane rides, yacht cruises, and boats (which they don't even seem to appreciate - a boat they received for their wedding went unacknowledged and untouched from its dry dock location for years until the giver grabbed it back!). And yet, they are by far the biggest spenders for a family that send their children to public school and don't own property outright. Mary, we're looking at you, kid. Your boganson family upbringing in the lower middle classes as the child of immigrants with aspirant behaviour was exhibited from a very early period (horse riding in a family that feared that animal) through the years of dating used car salesmen and trying to hitch your WAGon to an underage rugby star to digging your fangs into the weak Prince Frederik and hot-gluing pearls to your tin foil tiara have proven that you want nothing more than an empty luxury life surrounded by labels and carats and camera flashes to try and fill some empty void in your cold, shriveled heart. You're a pathetic excuse for a crown princess. Watch yourself, or the press will turn on you hard and reveal the truths about you and you will never swim back from that tidal wave of revolt.

Article: Ekstra Bladet

The Royal House Cost 113,645 Kroner Every Day in 2012

They could invite 1420.5 Danes to the movies, they could buy 649 cases of beer, book 24 trips to Egypt or acquire 22 iPhone 5s.

Every day. All year round!

The royal household is not for amateurs. Quite the contrary as it requires serious credit card muscles to be born or married into the royal family.

Ekstra Bladet has had access to the VAT refund that the royals have been given back from last year's spending. And it shows that together they spent no less than 41,480,573.95 kroner on goods or services.

Or 113,645.4 kroner. Every day. All year round!

The hefty purchases meant that the state reimbursed the royals 8,296,114.79 kroner, as the royals do not pay VAT. The law is the exemption from VAT and therefore they get recover the VAT they pay every time they buy a product or a service.

It also means that the slightly more than 41 million have not gone to wages, but only for the purchase of physical goods and services supplied from outside.

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Mary in her new Saab 9-3 Aero Cabriolet from Danish car distributors Andersen & Martini

Article: Ekstra Bladet

Swedish Court Chief: Unhealthy That Royals Get Cars As Gifts

It is well known that members of the Danish royal family are not just born with blue blood, but also with a nice dose of petrol in their veins.

The royals' fascination with expensive luxury cars has not gone unnoticed by the Danish car importers who like to mark royal birthdays and anniversaries with rolling gifts in the millions.

Such was the case in Sweden until the Royal Swedish hofstaldmester, Mertil Melin, joined in 2003. He comes now with a sensational critique of what he calls 'an unhealthy culture'.

"I can not and will relate to me, how things should be done in the Danish royal family. But I can tell you about the situation I met when I joined the Swedish royal family ten years ago, and why I think it is a bad idea for us to receive gifts in the form of free cars", explains Mertil Merlin to Ekstra Bladet.
"Back then both Saab and Volvo delivered free cars to the Swedish royal family. I believed from the start that this is an unhealthy culture, because you end up in a situation where these companies can expect to get some services in return for their gifts, and where you have no control over how they use images and produces the royal.

There is a risk easily become part of an advertising campaign, which you have no control over. The companies had a clear expectation that they could use it, to the trucks to the court, in connection with their marketing.

"When I took office, the Swedish king had some friends in the business who supplied him with free cars, and I would not accept. They came with their own photographer and would perpetuate when he should have your keys, but I said, 'Never in the life of the king should he come out and pose for photos at one's request', says Mertel Merlin, who tore all the old agreements in pieces and decided that the Swedish royal family instead needed to lease their cars.

"It is much simpler - also in relation to the public - when the king shall bear his own costs. In this way we can change the car when we want - for example, every three years - and there is not the same expectation that the Crown must reciprocate a favour", said the court chief.

The Swedish royal family today lease their cars from Mercedes and others and get a lucrative deal: "We pay about 6000 SEK a month for the king's Mercedes, but he asks not for publicity photos and stuff. You may like to take pictures when the king drives his car, but any more we will not allow," states Mertil Melin.

The author Jens Høvsgaard went to the extent of painting the Danish royal family lovingly in the book 'It Costs a Kingdom', where he focused on the many gifts to the royal family from Danish business: "The opinions of Mertil Melin confirm that there is an abysmal difference between what is happening in the Swedish and Danish royal families."

Here in Denmark, the royal family cultivates in a big way the many free gifts, ranging from cars, boats, luxury cruises and free transport jets from Danfoss and Lego.

"In Sweden and Norway, the royal houses are much more humble, if you then can use that word in the royal context", assess Jens Høvsgaard, who believes that the royals are willing participants in a big marketing game.

"They end up in the pockets of businesses and people who want to be in the world and have the big wallet promotion." This is exactly what the Swedish court director wanted to avoid. He will not risk putting his employers in such a situation, and therefore he has made sure that has become part of their culture.

"I think it is outrageous and disgusting, what is happening in Denmark. There should be a new framework for what the Danish royal family really are - what they can receive and how they must act vis-a-vis being advertising columns for various companies and the business community", said the author and points out that the royal family does not pay tax on the many expensive gifts.

"In Denmark detects the royal house the many gifts as part of their income. Since they do not have to pay income tax, avoiding the on the way to pay gift tax, as we all must. It's a great lucrative way of acting."

The Danish royal family does not wish to comment.

Swedish Court Chief Mertil Merlin, with Crown Princess Victoria

Happy gift-giving: It has marketing value!
 

Cars, boats, furs, prams, yacht stays, holidays, designer clothes and much more. The list is long when the royal gifts each year must be made up, and especially royal occasions such as weddings and anniversaries are events that get the happy givers to look deep in their wallets.

One of those who has repeatedly favoured the Danish royal family with expensive gifts in the millions, is the car company Andersen & Martini.

In connection with Frederik and Mary's wedding, the bride was given a Saab 9-3 Aero Convertible, worth 740,000 kroner. In the spring of 2007, they received the spoils of a Saab 9-3 estate with a value of 600,000 kroner. When Joachim married Marie, the gift went even higher up the chain. The bride received a Cadillac BLS Diesel with 180 horsepower and automatic transmission."We do not participate in the kind of thing, but back then it was, partly because I like the Danish royal family, partly because you can not avoid that the royals will be shown along with the cars in the media. It had of course some marketing value for us", explained Peter Hansen, CEO of Andersen & Martini.

The company got the privilege to get promotional photos, and it also issued a press release in connection with the gift to Marie. Here we were told specifically about Prince Joachim's great enthusiasm for this particular car model. Also Kia, Saab, Toyota and Mitsubishi have given the Danish royals free cars for anniversaries.