Frits and Soumaya – NRC

A good novelist came up with them: the recent complications in the VVD surrounding Frits and Soumaya. A convicted jihadist repents, or pretends – the writer cunningly leaves both options open, because he wants us to continue reading. She seeks contact with a VVD celebrity, a certain Frits, someone she must have regarded as a sworn enemy in her time as a jihadist. She manages to convince him of her complete conversion. Frits is so impressed that he becomes her mentor and takes her to the Ridderzaal for the Speech from the Throne by King Willem-Alexander in 2015.

The novelist shows that for years no one takes offense at this remarkable development. That will only happen if the competition between the VVD and another right-wing party, the PVV, intensifies. Soumaya has since become a security adviser to the VVD, and the blond leader of the PVV, a certain Geert, sees his chance to throw himself over Soumaya’s back on the VVD and its leader, a certain Mark.

Geert claims furiously that he now also feels threatened at the Binnenhof. He suggests the possibility that Soumaya and her sister Fonda, a headscarf Member of Parliament for D66, will soon target their smuggled Kalashnikovs in the corridors of the House of Representatives building. And he doubts his loyal aides, named Martin and Dion, will act as a living, bulletproof wall between him and the gunmen.

Does the frightened Member of Parliament have reason to be suspicious and are the ladies indeed up to something in their Islamic shield? The author still leaves it open. Some readers will understand Geert, others – such as an unnamed columnist – assume that he is gradually ripe for a psychiatric institution.

What now? The novel threatens to falter and needs a surprising development. For this, the writer invents a new character, one Sophie, a rising star in the rather empty firmament of the VVD. When asked, Sophie says that she feels “uncomfortable” with this case and that she is even “in her stomach about it”. “I think we should think about this, and we do.”

Now the book gets really exciting, because fascinating moral dilemmas begin to emerge. Will the VVD cowardly succumb to the xenophobic intimidation by the PVV leader, or will she keep her back straight and take a bold stand behind her former, honored party leader Frits (again not to be confused with an unnamed columnist)?

Possibly even more fascinating: what does Frits do when his party drops Soumaya like a brick that was too heavy on the stomach? Will Frits also completely abandon his pupil, who had become so dear to him and who saw in him a fearless patron? Or does he turn out to be a brave moral knight with an iron backbone, who does not want any treason on his conscience? In fact, is he even willing to turn his back on his beloved party?

The novel is now rapidly approaching its denouement. I know how the writer will let it end, because I was allowed to preview the unpublished manuscript. Too bad I can’t reveal anything about it, spoiler forbidden. I can only advise: keep reading.