National party leader Caroline van der Plas of the BBB does not find the apologies made of the King Jetta Klijnsma Commissioner in Drenthe. Klijnsma took the anger of BBB members last weekend. At the GroenLinks-PvdA party congress she said that the BBB in Drenthe has no driver experience, which yields ‘misery’.
In a statement that the BBB party board published this morning, Van der Plas announced that she was personally called by Klijnsma. She would have apologized in this and indicated that she wants to make a statement in the coming States meeting.
But with that, for Caroline van der Plas the air is not yet cleared: “This was her primary reaction. And if this is your primary reaction, then that is what you really think. Then that is your judgment about our people. That is how you put our members of the States in Drenthe publicly. That while they do not sitting in a safe work for Drenthe.
The BBB leader believes that the Drenthe group can determine whether further steps are needed, but she does indicate that internal apologies are insufficient for her. She sees more salvation in a public statement that must also be communicated to the media. “This should not be dismissed as a mistake behind closed doors,” writes Van der Plas.
Yesterday the BBB in Drenthe reacted angry. Chairman Willem Vossebeld called Klijnsma’s statement ‘a remark by Jan Doedel’. “We are all angry.” Tonight the Drenthe group will discuss whether and how she will respond to this.
Both Caroline van der Plas and agricultural minister Femke Wiersma, State Secretary for Defense Gijs Gardener, State Secretary for the Interior Eddie of Marum, Minister of Infrastructure and Waterstaat Robert Tieman, MEP Jessika van Leeuwen and the BBB politicians in the Water Boards in Drenthe remain at home. The members of the States and deputies from BBB Drenthe will also not take a seat in the Skybox at Jetta Klijnsma.
BBB Drenthe points out in today’s statement that a King’s Commissioner should be above the parties and “not applauding at a biased congress while putting away a democratically elected party.”