Lilian Helder has been in the House of Representatives on behalf of the Party for Freedom for more than 4,700 days. In 2010, behind political leader Geert Wilders and deputy Fleur Agema, the former lawyer got third place on the electoral list that would give the PVV 24 seats. In the Chamber, the 49-year-old Helder has been involved in the police organization for about ten years now. “The police is in my genes,” she says. From her study she takes a black and white photo of her grandfather in uniform. Grandfather Helder was a motorcycle police officer in the Venlo police all his life.
As a member of parliament, Helder has become a leading voice of dissatisfaction within the 65,000-employee National Police. She represents the interests of officers who have contracted post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) through their work and are demanding better financial compensation for the injuries sustained. She is in contact with relatives of three officers of the National Unit who complained about a sick working atmosphere and committed suicide.
These are all problems that, according to Helder, are the result of failing leadership within the police. In debates and motions, the PVV MP invariably complains about “a corps leadership without vision, without decisiveness and without support in the workplace”. The police top – “the golden buttons”, as Helder calls them – has to go for that reason.
Helder is sitting in the leather seat by the large window of her living room. The shutters are half down, so that only people without heads seem to pass in the street with terraced houses in Venlo. “I want to offer agents a listening ear,” she says about her work.
Helder has also taken the lead in the most current debate within the police. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives will talk to Minister Dilan Yesilgöz (Justice and Security, VVD) about racism and discrimination in the police organization. After last year’s screening of the TV documentary The Blue Family, in which six police officers talk about how they were systematically discriminated against, bullied and treated racist, the police top announced that racist behavior within the police will be tackled more strictly from now on. In extreme cases, dismissal will follow.
In recent months, the PVV MP has spoken extensively with three protagonists from the documentary. To the great satisfaction of these police officers. “Helder shows more involvement than the corps leadership,” says the officer of Surinamese origin, Péris Conrad, who has since left the police service. “Of course I cannot offer officers who have lost their jobs anything, but apparently as a PVV member I can offer a better listening ear,” says Helder.
Doesn’t the PVV seem the most obvious ally in the fight against racism?
“Ah, one should not react on the basis of the sticker PVV member. If you treat people, no matter who they are, with decency and respect, then you don’t need this whole diversity thing.”
Helder prefers not to use the word discrimination. That only leads to polarization. She prefers to talk about “the importance of social safety”. The only time she raises her voice in the interview is when it comes to an announcement that deputy chief of police Liesbeth Huyzer made last month in NRC did. The senior policewoman said that police executives are trained to “look for their inner racism”. To make agents more ‘resilient’.
Bright is horrified by this. “So there is an inner racist in every cop? Well say thank you. Then you’re off the path if you say that. As an agent, just do your job well. Act with authority and be open to other people. It is not an agent’s job to connect. The police take action in case of suspicious signals or behavior and that has nothing to do with inner racism.”
Helder rejects drawing up a ‘diversity agenda’, which the police have been working on for a year. After all, according to her, it means that police officers are “placed in boxes: Muslims versus non-Muslims, white against black, male or female. Then it becomes us against them and that is not good”. Racism and discrimination have long been punishable by law, so according to Helder you can simply act against them without a new ‘agenda’.
What should be done to ensure that officers with a migration background no longer leave the police en masse because they feel excluded?
“As a manager, first of all, set a good example yourself. Give officers confidence and talk to people more about what is or is not acceptable in certain situations.”
The PVV constantly complains about over-representation of D66 in the judiciary. How many police officers would sympathize with the PVV?
“That D66 is by far the most popular party among judges is simply a fact. This was revealed in a survey conducted by Free Netherlands ten years ago. The Labor Party came second. From my contacts with police officers, I get the impression that support for the PVV is considerably greater within the police than among the general population. I also get e-mails about this: ‘but we shouldn’t say something like that out loud’, police officers then report”.
Last month, an agent who has been active in the PVV for years was dismissed. The agent, candidate municipal councilor in The Hague, made “very inappropriate statements” on social media, according to the police. He had tweeted that he wanted “less, less, less gajes” on the day that six agents from the east were suspended for transgressive behavior. A video of the police officers appeared on Twitter in which they say they drive across “a Moroccan market” on their way to their hotel in Paris. Among other things, the agents shout “less, less, less”, referring to Wilders’ statement ‘fewer Moroccans’.
Has your party member been rightly suspended?
“I do not think so. I know this cop and taste is arguable, but he also has the right to freedom of expression. He stands up for colleagues. Two measures are used here. I find it strange that he is immediately thrown in front of the bus via the media.”
The police issued a press release about the suspension. “The management could have told him that they don’t think it’s so neat, nowadays. But now their own street is swept clean to show the outside world: look at our good performance. You turn the workplace against you by acting like this.”
Isn’t it very important that the police work on more diversity, so that citizens can recognize themselves in police officers?
“No, you don’t have to recognize yourself in a cop if he or she wants to be able to enforce authority. Authority is enforced by word and gesture and not by color or religion”.
Can you imagine that people have no confidence in an agent who is openly a PVV member?
“No. Because every agent must act as it is stated in the law and has taken an oath.”
Your party leader Wilders tweets that as prime minister he ‘wants to kick criminal scum out of the country, together with their family’ or he tweets: ‘I want the borders tightly closed, zero more asylum seekers and what is already there out of our country as quickly as possible’ . How can citizens trust a police officer who sympathizes with a politician who propagates these bigoted views?
“What matters is how that agent behaves. You are there for people who need help and for maintaining the rule of law. I can imagine that someone doesn’t like something, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to have confidence in a cop, does it?”
You advocate the importance of respect and decency, but then why give those tweets from Wilders a like?
“I am not an agent, but as a Member of Parliament I do my work for the PVV and then you endorse the party program. I think that the resilience of society with regard to the reception of asylum seekers has been reached and that is why like me those tweets. I would phrase it differently myself.”
You have been a member of the House of Representatives for thirteen years now. How long will you continue?
“I am seriously considering whether I want to run again. I want to be there where I can do as much as possible for the agent on the shop floor and if I can do better elsewhere, I will seriously consider it. I want to be available to agents who feel crushed by the organization. I don’t know where that will be.”
Of the thirteen politicians who have been in the Chamber longer than you, eight are from the PVV. Last month, your fellow party member Martin Bosma complained on Twitter that there would be ‘an occupational ban against PVV members’ and ‘unlimited jobs for D66 members’. Do you also fear a professional ban?
“Yes, as a PVV member you have no chance of getting a decent job after this. That, by the way, is no reason for me to stay on as a Member of Parliament. The work of a representative of the people is honorable, but it ends at some point.”
A version of this article also appeared in the May 6, 2023 issue of the newspaper.