On Thursday, September 11, the awards for the best parliamentary photo, best political book, and best political podcast of 2025 were presented in the Senate by Mei Li Vos, acting Chair of the Senate.
PrinsjesPodcastprijs: Haagse Zaken
The episode Everything You Need to Know to Understand NSC of the podcast Haagse Zaken won the award for the best political podcast of 2025. According to the jury, the podcast delivers what it promises: context, background, and interpretation: understanding NSC, the party of Omtzigt, which aimed to do things differently in political The Hague: less power politics and more substance. However, the party is currently in troubled waters. Within a few weeks, the party had to say goodbye to two state secretaries, and in the week of the episode, two NSC members of parliament resigned. The podcast remains engaging until the last moment, providing a wealth of information in a very accessible manner and thus offers depth and insight, according to the jury.
PrinsjesFotoprijs: Marjolein Faber bij het Catshuis
Photographer Remko de Waal won the PrinsjesFotoprijs 2025, the award for the best political photo of the past parliamentary year. He did this with a photo of Marjolein Faber (PVV), Minister of Asylum and Migration, arriving at the Catshuis for the cabinet meeting. The cabinet meets weekly at the Catshuis, the official residence of the Prime Minister. The vast majority of entries for the photo prize were photos of Faber. The jury found Remko de Waals photo of all submitted Faber photos to be the most beautiful. The photo underscores her position in the Schoof cabinet, according to the jury.
PrinsjesBoekenprijs: De tien van Den Haag
The award for the best political book of 2025 went to Stephan Steinmetz for the book The Ten from The Hague: Senior Civil Servants During the Occupation. One of the qualities of this book is, according to the jury, that the conclusion becomes undeniably clear over time, but that it is not drawn lazily by Steinmetz. The book is more than history. In times of autocratic tendencies, civil servants are increasingly looked to defend the rule of law and fundamental rights. The Ten from The Hague provides insight into how senior civil servants fared in defending fundamental rights in the most extreme circumstances: those of the German occupation.
Jury
The jury of the PrinsjesBoekenprijs consists of Lilianne Ploumen, Nynke de Zoeten, and Bastiaan Rijpkema. The jury of the PrinsjesFotoprijs consists of Frederiek Biemans, Theo Bovens, and Anke Truijen. Kees van der Staaij, Hannah Warnar, and Lotte Welmers together form the jury of the PrinsjesPodcastprijs.
Prinsjesfestival
The competition Democracy in Word and Image is part of the Prinsjesfestival, which takes place every year around Prinsjesdag with a large number of activities in The Hague. The theme of this years festival is Together Free, Together Strong; Celebrate Democracy!