Euphoria, agitation and the Dutch Trumpje

And so the country is entering a phase of the pandemic that brings relief and perhaps even a moment of euphoria. Still, dealing with two years of restrictions on freedom probably requires more than a night of dancing in the street or a few theater or restaurant visits. Too many people have been in isolation for too long, either personally or professionally.

So you hope politicians understand what role this requires of them: calm down, don’t agitate.

The lack of self-control in the House last week was therefore quite sad. People’s representatives shouting at each other like hooligans on the floor of the national assembly hall: the last thing that benefits the country.

Pandemics affect politicians. While negotiating the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson caught the Spanish flu. Until then, he fervently opposed the Anglo-French demand for hefty German reparations for the First World War. Afterwards did he give up – a defining moment for European history.

Now Russian President Putin is alluding to a conflict with the West through military action in Ukraine. Former President Trump is fueling anti-democratic sentiment in the US as he won support from large segments of Republicans for his delusion that he lost the 2020 election to fraud. You do hear that the World Economic Forum would use corona for a Great Reset — but Putin and Trump are really working on it.

The Netherlands can do little about this, although it helps if national politics follows the same line. Also to make clear which parties want to break through this common interest.

And before the party of our own little Trump again posits that ‘those responsible’ for the corona policy should be brought to justice, it might be good to remember that this policy also came about because of Baudet’s own political inability.

This is so. Three years ago, in 2019, FVD became the largest in the States elections, good for twelve senate seats. But due to internal conflicts, summer 2019 and November 2020, in which it revolved around Baudet himself, FVD lost no fewer than nine of its twelve seats. So when the Senate last year, for example agreed with the corona pass so criticized by Baudet, FVD played no role with its three seats. But had Baudet shown skill and leadership earlier, and kept his twelve seats, FVD, as the largest senate faction, would have been a serious opponent for the cabinet.

In FVD language: which ‘responsible persons’ should actually be tried for this – those who proposed the plan, or those who failed to resist it through their own fault?