According to opinion oracle Victor Vlam, Catherine Keyl has escaped a political drama. “This was just a really bad idea. To the left or to the right would mean loss of face.”
Celebrities are literally everywhere these days. They play hysterical games with Linda de Mol, are freshly detoxed in a Videoland documentary, stop smoking in front of the stage because it makes money, sing out of tune in a musical, give their opinion about all kinds of things in talk shows and now they try also to storm the House of Representatives.
‘Do not do it!’
Lucille Werner is leaving politics, but something will come in return. Semi-BN’er Yesim Candan was recently on the D66 candidate list for 24 hours and Catherine Keyl decided at the last minute not to stand on the BVNL candidate list together with Henk Krol. According to Catherine, the chance of a parliamentary seat was very real.
It is very sensible that Catherine did not appear on the electoral list, says media expert Victor Vlam. “I saw that Catherine had thanked Keyl for being on the list and my advice would actually be to all Dutch celebrities who will be asked in the near future: ‘Do you want to be on our list?’, absolutely don’t do it!”
Very bad idea
Celebrities should not start this, Victor said in the podcast The Communicados. “If you think about it, that’s a really bad idea. Some are tempted, because hey, they’re a little flattered. It is for the House of Representatives and that still has a little prestige.”
He continues: “And well, stars feel a little bit valued and that their opinion matters, so some are indeed tempted to say yes. But see the case of Albert Verlinde to see why that is a very bad idea. He served as a list pusher in the municipal elections in Vught.”
Albert debacle
Albert received 460 preferential votes, enough to gain a seat on his own. Actually, he didn’t want to. “But people didn’t accept that, because they said: yes, wait a minute, we voted for you. You were on that list, then you should just take responsibility and not be so difficult.”
Albert actually had to. “So then he just sat in there. But to be very honest, it was always a bit of a disappointment, because he has already left. He served on that council for 2.5 years. Yes, of course that’s not even a whole term. That’s a pretty short time. It’s obvious he didn’t really feel like it.”
‘This doesn’t help anyone’
Such a lightning politician is of no use to you, says co-host Lars Duursma. “In the end, everyone is worse off. He himself is worse off, the municipality is worse off, the reputation of politics is worse off. This just doesn’t help anyone.”
Victor continues: “So if you get too many votes, then you often just have to take responsibility, many people think. And if you don’t do that, you will indeed lose face. There is also another scenario and that is that no one votes for you. Well in that case it is also a loss of face.”
Wise decision
So you can never do well as a celebrity in politics, Victor concludes. “Whether people vote for you or don’t vote for you, either way, it just doesn’t end well. So that’s why I think Catherine Keyl made the wise decision here.”
He concludes: “I think that in many cases it is not wise to become a list pusher, unless you have the ambition to really enter politics, then this can be a first step in that direction. But what if you don’t have that ambition? I would leave it as it is.”