This is apparent from internal communication that was suddenly released by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. De Volkskrant has been asking for the documents for almost a year, but the ministry kept refusing to provide them even when ordered by the judge.
The documents will now be released on the eve of a debate with Hugo de Jonge in the House of Representatives. The CDA minister must then explain why he did interfere with the face mask deal of 100.8 million euros for Van Lienden, while in the past he always said he was not involved.
Then de Volkskrant Revealed last week that De Jonge gave the first push for the deal by instructing a top official to contact Van Lienden, the CDA member judged harshly about that reporting. According to De Jonge, ‘the suggestions were de Volkskrant‘ not. At the time, he refused to enter into a debate with the House of Representatives.
The new communication shows that the CDA minister had much more intensive contact with Van Lienden than expected. His political assistant also communicated regularly with the party colleague. When Van Lienden reported that the negotiations with the government had progressed, De Jonge’s assistant said: ‘Cool! We’re going to see an unparalleled shift.’
De Jonge also appears to have informed himself about the progress of the negotiations with Van Lienden with the responsible minister Martin van Rijn. The CDA minister also received additional proposals from Van Lienden to supply another 80 million face masks. ‘Thank you! I’m going to read it carefully’, De Jonge replied. In his messages to the minister, Van Lienden continued to insist on working ‘without profit motive’, while secretly earning a lot of money.
The CDA minister also responded positively to Van Lienden’s proposals to telephone. ‘Can it be done at the end of the week’, the minister asked. The reports also show that officials maintained contact with Van Lienden at De Jonge’s insistence. “At your request I went to cuddle with Sywert,” wrote one official. “That’s almost a day job.”
De Jonge’s ministerial position seems to be hanging by a thread because of the documents that have now been revealed. The question will also arise as to who helped the CDA minister to hide his involvement in the Sywert deal for so long from the House of Representatives and the outside world, despite repeated requests for openness.