Caroline van der Plas got emotional live on SBS 6 last night. Her voice broke briefly and tears appeared in both her eyes. “No, I don’t feel free.”
The farmer’s lady Caroline van der Plas is virtually the biggest challenger to Prime Minister Mark Rutte. It would not surprise anyone if her party BBB will soon be the biggest in the polls. We see her popping up everywhere, yesterday in the talk show HLF8 of Hélène Hendriks, who is halfway through a burnout.
‘No, I’m not free’
When Hélène asks how things are going with all the threats, Caroline answers: “Well, there is a report with the Public Prosecution Service. At the moment it is quiet. I get a lot of stuff all over me, but not with threats.”
Hélène: “Do you feel free to come and go as you please?”
Caroline: “No. Not that. No.”
Hélène: “Do you think it will ever go away?”
Caroline: “Um, I hope so. I hope so.”
‘Mother is scared’
Hélène: “I can imagine that it must be quite tough for your family – I know your mother is still alive.”
Caroline: “Certainly. He’s very scared. And I want to say that to people again: even if it’s a joke what you do, it has a huge impact on someone’s life. And not only on mine, but also on that of my children and especially my mother.”
One specific threat in particular has had a significant impact. Hélène: “Have they got them yet?”
Caroline: “Not yet.”
Voice breaks
Caroline hasn’t gone anywhere for a while. Now you can. “It is now in order, the measures have been taken,” she says. Then her voice breaks: “At my house too. So now I’m doing that again, but I don’t go to big public events and I won’t walk down the street in Amsterdam.”
When Caroline’s eyes become moist, Hélène remarks: “It limits you enormously. And it touches you. And that makes sense. I find it difficult, because I see that it affects you.”
Caroline: “It actually touches me mainly because of my mother. That woman is 83 years old and is just afraid that she will lose her daughter. All those people who threaten other people too, you know, just think about what you’re doing. It touches me and it just makes me angry when I talk about it again.”
