Princess Amalia is to start claiming the €1.5 million she has been allotted to pay for expenses as heir to the throne from next January.

When she left school in 2021, Amalia said she did not want to claim money she is entitled to when she turned 18 until she started taking up royal duties in earnest.

Accepting the money, she said at the time, would make her feel ‘uncomfortable’ as long as she did little in return ‘and that other students face far more difficulties, especially in the coronavirus era’.

Now the princess has said she needs the money to pay for “costs associated with independent and autonomous performance of her role”. She said she will continue to return the €300,000 which she receives as an effective tax-free salary while she is at university.

Two years ago it emerged that the princess had been the victim of serious threats and she eventually spent time in Madrid to continue her studies away from the public eye. The money which she will now accept will go to pay for “secretarial support and a reserve for a living and working space”.  

The money will not be used to pay for personal security, prime minister Mark Rutte said in response to reporters’ questions. “Her studies are progressing and she is more visible,” Rutte said. “She was last involved in the Spanish royal visit… so she is right to make a call on the money.”

Currently, members of the royal family receive a tax-free salary and are not required to pay gift or inheritance tax.

Prime minister Mark Rutte has repeatedly defended the royals’ tax-free status, arguing that “a deal is a deal”.

The taxpayer also picks up the bill for security, rebuilding palaces, and the former queen’s yacht De Groene Draeck. The Dutch royal family is considered to be the most expensive in Europe, and costs the taxpayer some €40m a year, excluding security.