Johan Derksen and René van der Gijp disagree again about the way they deal with their prominent studio guest Mark Rutte. “You can’t make small talk!”
After Mark Rutte’s first visit to the studio of Today Inside, a real quarrel arose behind the scenes of Today Inside. René van der Gijp was furious about the way Johan Derksen approached the Prime Minister. “You want to treat him the same as last time next time? Then I’ll stay at home!” he yelled.
Own format
And now Johan and René seem to disagree again about their special studio guest. Rutte sat at the table for the second time on Monday and that led to a terribly boring broadcast.
What went wrong? The whole setup, according to René. The intention was to make it more of a regular VI, he says in the broadcast From yesterday. “I was called twice in the morning by the editors. And even when I arrived here, the idea was to do more of our own format.”
Greengrocer riot
René states that the intention was to talk about football, for example. “To also just switch to Ajax, PSV and Manchester United. Look, then you have a little variety. That’s what it’s all about for us, of course.”
Even the Gijs Groenteboer riot would be discussed. “Do you know? Look, he had even watched that Van Roosmalen broadcast, he had gone through Ajax with Van der Sar.”
Wilfred Genee agrees: “He was all prepared, wasn’t he?”
‘John didn’t want to’
René thinks it’s a missed opportunity. “He had gone through Van Nistelrooy. He wanted to talk about that here with us. Really and truly. He wanted that too, but things turned out differently. He says to me: ‘Are we still going to talk about that Friday night (the Groenteboer riot, ed.)?’ I said, ‘If you throw it up, we’ll talk about it.’”
However, the plan was blown up by Johan, says René. “That’s what Rutte was after, to make a normal broadcast, only Johan says: ‘Yes, that’s not possible, because then you won’t be talking about asylum, Groningen and nitrogen.’ That’s also a bit crazy, but that’s what he wanted. He was prepared for that.”
Not often the chance
Johan thinks that you should mainly talk about serious subjects with Rutte. “He could have talked about that, but we don’t often get the chance to ask him certain things and throw them at the feet. That he is then particularly adept at avoiding it…”
Wilfred is on the same page as René. “I mean: if he ever comes again, we better just talk a bit about Slot and about Peter Gillis who has a new love.”
Johan does not want that: “If you have him, then I think you should confront him with the facts. Then you can’t talk about small talk.”
Again?
Should VI still want Rutte to come by at all? Wilfred: “That’s the question.”
Table guest Özcan Akyol: “Yes, you ask that question every time.”
Johan: “Yes, if you can get the prime minister, then you have to have him at the table and then we have to be so handy to get something out of him and that didn’t work out.”
Wilfred: “Just to be clear: the Prime Minister’s PR team had nothing to do with it.”
Johan: “No, then people think that we have been gagged, but that was not the issue.”