Floortje Dessing has been at loggerheads for years with her brother Johan Dessing, who sits in the Senate for Forum for Democracy. “If you don’t distance yourself, you are no longer my brother!”
Floortje Dessing’s family is politically very divided. While she is annoyed by all those right-wing people who pollute the world during her endless plane trips, her brother Johan Dessing is a member of Thierry Baudet’s right-wing conspiracy club. He doesn’t believe in climate change; he will think that it is something invented by a secret elite of reptiles.
Take it, or leave it
Their family rift has one to one to do with his political position, says Johan in the Story. “The fact that I became politically active for Forum for Democracy has caused a rift in our contact. I no longer have contact with Floortje. I have always said that I think it is important to keep talking to each other.”
Johan has tried that too, he says. “But I noticed that that didn’t work. At a certain point, Forum took certain positions and then Floortje said: ‘If you don’t distance yourself from that now, then I will no longer know you as my brother.’ That put our bond on edge. I said, ‘I still support this. Take it, or leave it.’”
Respect opinions
It is incomprehensible to Johan that Floortje breaks the family bond, purely because he is an accomplice of Thierry. “I said, ‘We may disagree on something, but we have to respect each other.’ At a certain point that was no longer possible. That is a sad statement, but it is a fact.”
Will they see each other at Christmas? No, neither. “We celebrate Christmas without each other, but that is not the first time. The removal has been going on for some time.”
Crying parents
How sad for their parents. Those poor people are already 94 and 84 years old, and will soon end their lives with two children at loggerheads. Johan: “They find it very sad, but there is little they can do to change it.”
Finally: what does Johan think about Floortje polluting the world so much with her flying hobby? “I’m very much in favor of flying, and I don’t think the whole CO2 issue should be an issue.”