UPDATEThe extreme right-wing party PVV nominates former PvdA minister Ronald Plasterk as a new scout to investigate which coalition is possible. Normally, PVV senator Gom van Strien would work as a scout, but he resigned after publications about a fraud case in which he is involved. “It didn’t go well, it should have been better,” PVV leader Geert Wilders responds after all the fuss that overshadows the Dutch government negotiations.
LOOK. Gom van Strien will stop working as a scout for the Dutch formation with immediate effect
Dutch PVV senator Gom van Strien immediately resigned from his duties as a scout on Monday morning. He made this known in a statement. “This weekend, articles appeared in the media about work in my past, questioning my integrity. In my opinion, both the unrest that has arisen about this and the preparation of a response to it do not relate to my current work as a scout.”
Van Strien was nominated as a scout by Geert Wilders’ PVV, after the far-right party’s victory in the elections in the Netherlands. Last weekend, an article in the Dutch newspaper ‘NRC’ linked him to fraud at his former employer. On Sunday he announced that he would continue as a scout. He denied the accusations.
Van Strien is suspected of fraud and bribery by his former employer Utrecht Holdings. The company, which filed a report in March, is owned by Utrecht University and the University Medical Center Utrecht. Fraud was allegedly committed at the company between 2006 and 2018. The PVV member of the Senate was general director of Utrecht Holdings between 2000 and 2009.
Utrecht Holdings has filed a complaint against three people: two employees who were suspended and a former employee. According to the ‘NRC’, the latter was from Strien. Wilders acknowledges that the Van Strien affair made scouting work impossible. “This is my responsibility,” Wilders said on Monday. “It didn’t go well, it should have been better.”
Remarkable
Ronald Plasterk, former Dutch minister on behalf of the PvdA, is now nominated by the PVV as a new scout. Insiders confirmed this after a report from ‘RTL News’. Plasterk (66) was Minister of Education between 2007 and 2010. In the second Rutte government he was also minister of the Interior. It is remarkable that the PVV nominates a PvdA celebrity, but Plasterk has recently made himself very popular with many right-wing politicians and opinion makers.
In his Telegraaf column, the former minister opposes many left-wing themes. He is critical of climate and nature policy and the excuses for the history of slavery. He has also specifically opened the attack on political parties, including D66. Moreover, Plasterk is an outspoken opponent of further cooperation between GroenLinks and PvdA.
RTL News
@RTLnieuws
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