The first dent in the new provincial board of BBB, VVD, PvdA and CDA is here. At least five, but possibly six BBB Members of Parliament have voted against the arrival of deputy Willemien Meuwissen (VVD). This is evident from research by RTV Drenthe.
There is never a deputy who can get to work with the consent of everyone (i.e. 100 percent of the votes). There are always a few or even a handful of no-voters. A total of nine members of parliament voted against Meeuwissen. That is a lot. And the most remarkable thing is that for the most part they do not come from the opposition – as usual – but from the coalition itself: namely from the BBB.
RTV Drenthe had about ten conversations with political insiders of the provincial government and from this you can conclude that the problem that part of the BBB-faction has with deputy Meeuwissen seems to be twofold. It has to do with the VVD as a party as well as with the person. A number of BBB members find the VVD “unreliable” as a party and have difficulty with how Meeuwissen, according to them, acts and comes across. The word “arrogant” is mentioned a number of times.
Deputy Meeuwissen could not yet be reached for comment.
BBB party chairman and negotiator Gert-Jan Schuinder says he is not worried about it. “I don’t know who in my group voted against Willemien Meeuwissen. So that that happened, I cannot deny nor confirm. If so, then this is something for Willemien to pick up on. But I would don’t worry about it if I were her. If it is the case that we voted against, I don’t think it is due to Willemien Meeuwissen, but that part of my group may not agree with the national VVD- policy.”
According to various political insiders, the formation of the current coalition of BBB, VVD, PvdA, and CDA initially hung by a thread. Initially, the BBB would not have wanted to do business with the VVD, but preferred the PVV or the ChristenUnie in a coalition with PvdA and CDA.
Just before or after the exploratory phase, a glue attempt was made between VVD and BBB. It seems to have passed in an icy atmosphere. Schuinder thinks that the picture is different and that it was certainly not an attempt to glue: “It is true that we have been silent for a long time about who we would continue to talk to at the table. It was that the VVD heard nothing from us and then felt left out. We’ve talked about that.”
Both PvdA parliamentary party chairman Hendrikus Loof and his colleagues Kees Vianen (VVD) and Bart van Dekken (CDA) say they themselves do not know where the votes against Willemien Meeuwissen are. All Members of Parliament of those three coalition parties have all voted in favour.
“I’m not worried about the eight votes against our deputy Jisse Otter either,” says Schuinder. But where the ‘pain’ lies with Otter is clear: with the opposition. Because before the vote on Otter, he briefly debated his Twitter behavior. According to D66 party leader Anry Kleine Deters, Otter retweets statements and articles that contribute to polarization. This often concerns tweets and articles about nitrogen policy. Otter is also said to have lashed out hard at the Party for the Animals, GroenLinks and coalition partner VVD on his account.
After all, Schuinder thinks it is a bad thing that almost all other parties have announced what they voted during the secret ballot.