The Rot and Hypocrisy within the CDA: Wopke Hoekstra’s Green Turn and Pieter Omtzigt’s Integrity

With Wopke Hoekstra’s public application for climate commissioner at the European Union, you increasingly understand how deep the rot actually runs in the CDA. It’s brown right down to the core, so brown that no one wants to bite into it anymore. While Wopke never managed to gain mass popular favor, he managed to make himself hated by almost the entire electorate in record time. No one seems impressed by his startling green turn. He unintentionally gives us a glimpse into the soul of the bread politician. With positions as fluid as water, he suddenly turns out to be the best choice for Earth. With dry eyes he wonders why there is no tax on kerosene yet.

You would almost think: we could really use a man like that in The Hague. He is tied together by so much elastic that he is seen as evil, the height of hypocrisy. Add Hugo de Jonge to that and you understand why the CDA is still the womb of power politics and you also understand why Pieter Omtzigt left that sinking ship. Followed by a whole string of CDA members who say they have integrity. Meanwhile, Pieter Omtzigt makes a reverse move. For every spot we are referred to a specialist, but to be on the safe side. Everyone on his list must and will realize: no matter how small the lie is, Pieter will catch it. Once the stamp of approval has been placed, the voter knows that we can consider the candidate Member of Parliament as reliable and honest, far beyond the decimal point.

With positions as fluid as water, he suddenly appears to be the best choice for Earth

Wopke and Pieter are two trees growing from the same stump, but the contrast could hardly be greater. They are like neighbors, one of whom prunes the box hedge every week and the other has recently let the front garden deteriorate. What speaks for the latter is that he is also proud of it.

One person says he wants to rake the other’s garden again, while the other has long had his eye on a house with a much larger garden and is already concerned about the situation there. One wants to save the country, the other the planet. The CDA may have been pruned, but power thinking is still present in every cut branch.

Marcel van Roosmalen writes an exchange column here with Ellen Deckwitz.

A version of this article also appeared in the October 4, 2023 newspaper.
2023-10-03 18:13:56
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