Karien van Gennip, Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, was stunned when she saw John de Mol’s interview in Tim Hofman’s Voice documentary. “It made me angry.”
John de Mol reacted in a bewildering way to the revelations about the abuse at The Voice. He almost seemed to blame the victims for the abuse. They should have reported to one of his Talpa counters, was the accusation. After massive criticism, John came up with a huge mea culpa.
Karen in shock
The way in which John responded was unbelievable, according to CDA minister Karien van Gennip. When asked how she looked at the interview, she answered yesterday in Beau van Erven Dorens’ talk show: “A bit in shock, because if you as an employer do not receive an incident, you know that something is not right.”
She approves that John has repented. “It is admirable that he took a look at himself and said: ‘This has to change’. That is also the example of how we should approach this.”
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Many more executives, like John, need to take a look at themselves, says Karien. “You have to get these kinds of people, the executives in the Netherlands of companies and organizations, to consult themselves.
“That they think: hey, what just happened? What have I done that wasn’t okay? What have I done where I may have crossed a line? Or (pointing to a photo of John, ed.): which I actually didn’t understand what was going on?”
‘This makes you angry’
Because John’s initial reaction was really impossible, says Karien. “This makes you angry as a woman,” she says.
“The intention is, of course, that we convert that anger into that change, so that it does not happen again next time and so that in the end these kinds of people (pointing to John, ed.) – and there are a lot of them like him in the Netherlands – are correct. become an ambassador for change. You want to get that done.”
Gain
Beau also agrees that John has changed his view on this case. “He’s come back to this in the meantime, let’s face it, so at least that’s a win.”
Robbert Dijkgraaf, the new Minister of Education: “Obviously it is a manager’s problem that you have created an atmosphere in which people do not dare to do that. The victims are not to be blamed and that is a turning point that I think John de Mol himself went through and which I think we as a society now have to go through.”