The prize for the most disgusting press photo of the previous week, also printed on Wednesday NRCas far as I’m concerned, goes to Bart Maat, who photographed CDA MP Raymond Knops during his farewell to the House of Representatives.
We see Knops beaming in his bench, his chubby hands clasped together, while he enjoys the applause that the MPs splash around him. To his left is CDA party chairman Pieter Heerma, also beaming, but more like a relieved father who is happy that his eldest son, who was in danger of wasting away in a sluggish job at the Binnenhof, has finally got a nice job. Knops, defense spokesman for the CDA, is allowed to work for the arms lobby, the Dutch Industry for Defense and Security. Good for Raymond!
It was a pity that he could not be voiced by the previous President of the House, Khadija Arib, who always undisguised her disapproval when another Member of Parliament left for a more lucrative job in the meantime. Her successor Vera Bergkamp confined herself to mellifluous words about Knops’ ‘straightforward attitude’ and great commitment to the public good. You would almost forget that Knops sometimes thought a little too much about the private business, for example when he allowed himself to be favored in a land transaction in Limburg.
Almost half of the former politicians in The Hague become lobbyists, calculated researcher Lousewies van der Laan NRC. I didn’t know what I was reading, at least I did, but I could hardly believe it. Van der Laan believes that there should not only be stricter rules, but also a cultural change. She ultimately calls the current state of affairs harmful to politics.
Totally agree, I would just replace the word “eventually” with “immediately.” To the voter, even if he never voted CDA, such a switch by Knops feels like a stab in the ribs. That voter is not yet falling to the ground dead, but he is looking forward to it. All sorts of wild, simplistic cries want out of his throat before he gives up the ghost. Doesn’t anyone want to be good then? Is everything trickery and deceit? Why should you vote any longer?
I would just keep doing it for a while, that vote, because even Knops’ CDA is far preferable to the populist gajes that are eager to level the entire Binnenhof to the ground. Hear them snigger at the selfish bumbling of ‘establishment politics’.
No, we have not had a happy week in this regard. Former European Commissioner and VVD minister Neelie Kroes was once again discredited. It was already known that as a former European Commissioner in 2015 she had secretly done lobbying for the American Uber, now an app change has also revealed how exactly that went.
Kroes initiated (“You have to meet him”) an introduction by Prime Minister Rutte to Travis Kalanick, the top man of Uber. “What do you advise me to do to adjust the policy in the Netherlands?” asks Kalanick. “Speak to Mrs Dijksma, a very good secretary of state,” the prime minister replies.
Member of Parliament Pieter Omtzigt wanted a debate with Rutte about this, but the coalition parties held back for the time being. Raymond Knops had already left by then, but he would have been fine with it, I suspect.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of February 10, 2023