Owen O’Brien
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News from the NOS•yesterday, 19:58•Modified yesterday, 20:17
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Ministers Kuipers and Van Gennip find a Twitter message from Forum for Democracy MP Van Houwelingen offensive. Van Houwelingen posted a photo in that tweet in which Kuipers appears to have hoisted a flag with a swastika. The photo also showed Minister Van Gennip. Ministers say they are considering further steps.
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Kuipers raised the Friday flag Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and posted a photo of it on Twitter. The SDGs are the global goals for sustainable development, which must end extreme poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change. The goals were set by the United Nations and embraced by the cabinet. To the Kuipers tweet he says: “A healthy and liveable planet for all, we can work on it as a ministry and health sector”.
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Van Houwelingen posted a tweet yesterday with the same photo of Kuipers and placed a photoshopped image of the minister with a Nazi flag next to it. The FvD deputy wrote above “the facade and reality”.
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‘New low’
Kuipers and Van Gennip today speak of “a new low in the treatment of administrators and politicians”. According to sources in The Hague, the government is evaluating the possibility of filing a complaint against Van Houwelingen. A discussion with the Chamber on events is also possible.
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D66 party chairman Jan Paternotte said he will file a complaint with the House of Representatives’ Integrity Investigation Board “to ensure this does not go unpunished.”
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Van Houwelingen’s tweet generated a lot of reactions, mostly negative. Many believe that the MP has gone too far. Someone called Van Houwelingen: “Don’t do it”. The FvD replied: “Why not? Those SDGs symbolize evil, right? The 2030 agenda of the globalists? Totalitarian society?”. Van Houwelingen deleted his tweet today.
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There was also an outcry about the Forum for Democracy earlier this week. During the General Political Reflections in the Chamber of Deputies left the toilet in protest, after FvD leader Baudet called the Oxford college where Minister Kaag studied a “training institute for Western intelligence.” House Speaker Bergkamp asked Baudet to take up his words. When he refused and repeated the tenor of his story about him, the president decided that the FvD leader could no longer participate in the debate.
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