Prime Minister Mark Rutte says he has forwarded the relevant text messages to his highest official. De Volkskrant After a Wob request, he received corona-related text messages that Rutte sent or received between December 2019 and 11 June 2020. According to Rutte, these are all messages that are relevant. In total there are 75 text messages.
Of these, 41 were written by himself, exclusively to the top official of his own ministry. There are also few relevant texts in between, such as ‘super’, ‘once’ and ‘8.40 o’clock’. The others concern messages from that official. Only 13 of the 41 messages are text messages from an external contact. Not a single text message contains the answer from Rutte himself to one of these persons.
Key players in the corona crisis
Among the 13 forwarded messages are some messages from mayors, such as Halsema and the mayor of Dordrecht. Philips, KLM and a company in face masks also text Rutte. There is not a single text message from many key players in the corona crisis. This would mean that Rutte has exchanged zero relevant text messages with RIVM director Jaap van Dissel, Hubert Bruls of the security council, Rotterdam mayor Aboutaleb and minister Hugo de Jonge.
During the corona crisis, there are many days when Rutte does not have a single message saved. Two messages were found between 15 March and 21 March, the first week of the lockdown. In the months of May and June there are hardly any messages to be found. The text message from Amsterdam mayor Halsema that was not found was supposed to have been sent on 1 June and is missing. In the declassified documents, a message was preserved on May 17. The message after that is dated June 22. Rutte said during the debate that he had forwarded that text message, but that his official had not archived it.