Sam Hagens is being criticized for bothering Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with an irrelevant question about protesting MPs like Caroline van der Plas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to our country. He gave a press conference together with Mark Rutte yesterday and Hart van Nederland star Sam Hagens was also there. All Dutch journalists present were given the opportunity to ask two questions. “In total!”
Critical Caroline
Very bummed, says Sam at the bar Inside today. “We stood there with ten Dutch journalists and we started discussing in a kind of democratic way with each other which questions we consider important. I myself really wanted to ask a question about the criticism from the House.”
Caroline van der Plas has caused some commotion by saying that she thought Zelensky’s visit was inappropriate on Remembrance Day. “I didn’t think it was the most important question, but I wanted to ask it. That didn’t work, because the rest just didn’t agree.”
Sam is brutal
Cheeky as he is, Sam decided to ask anyway. “After all those questions had finally been asked, I thought: I can’t come home without something, because then I will get a beating from Johan! I thought: if I ask Zelensky in a very nice way if I can ask another question, maybe it will work.”
Sam asked the president: “What do you say to Dutch parliamentarians who think Remembrance Day should only be about Dutch victims?”
To that came a correct and respectful answer from Zelensky.
Ruth pissed off
Wilfred Genee thinks that Sam will receive a reprimand from The Hague. “I think you will end up on the penalty box for a while.”
Colleague Johan Derksen: “Yes, Rutte was annoyed.”
Wilfred: “He was very annoyed. You immediately saw that in him. He thought: what a dick.”
Sam: “He hasn’t called yet. I think it’s not too bad.”
Irrelevant question
Table guest Özcan Akyol thinks that Sam has flattered. “Sam, I adore you, but I thought: if you can speak to someone of his stature… This man will really go down in the history books, won’t he? It will be Churchill, Nixon, Gorbachev, you name it. This will be the great man in history.”
He continues: “And then you can say later to your children or anyone else: ‘I was allowed to ask him a question.’ Then you have to explain what question you asked and then you say: ‘Yes, I asked what he thinks of Caroline van der Plas. That was a lady with a peasant party and she didn’t want to show up.’”
Totally unimportant, is what Özcan wants to say. He himself is said to have asked something about Zelensky’s emotional life, for example about his fatigue. “Or about his wife.”
Fragment
Zelensky at the press conference: