Khalid Kasem sternly reprimanded Dilan Yesilgöz last night because she does not want to exclude the PVV as a possible coalition partner. “Geert Wilders actually wants to exclude me!”
VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz has to defend himself vigorously everywhere for the fact that she does not want to exclude Geert Wilders as a possible coalition partner. She was also sternly questioned about it on the talk show last night Khalid & Sophie. “I understood that you do not want to exclude PVV voters. What exactly do you mean by that?”, said host Khalid Kasem.
Khalid critical
Khalid himself sees it differently. “You don’t actually say to those million people: ‘You are not allowed to participate’, you say it to a party that does not follow the rule of law. I will just mention a few things from the program: the ban on mosques, Koranic schools are no longer allowed, the Koran must even disappear from my house, so to speak…”
He continues: “People wearing a headscarf are not allowed to enter government buildings and are not even allowed to renew their passport or driver’s license. That’s not the past, that’s the present he’s talking about and the future. You can also say: ‘A party that does not follow the rule of law is a party with which I cannot cooperate.’”
Dream coalition
According to Yesilgöz, it is not good to give the impression that she would like to be in a coalition with the PVV. “I didn’t say I want to work with them or that it’s my dream coalition, right? I haven’t said anything about that yet anyway. That comes when the voter has spoken. I said that I do not want to exclude any parties in advance.”
She continues: “You are right that there are things in the program that I really don’t like at all, but let’s see how he sits at the table and let the voter speak.”
“He’s excluding me!”
Khalid states that Wilders is against people like him. “You’re talking about not excluding voters; Geert Wilders actually wants to exclude me and people who look like me. Mark Rutte did that… And I have often praised him for it… He stood for the basic values of society and the democratic constitutional state.”
He continues: “Parties and voices that go against how people can optimally feel like full-fledged Dutch citizens, that’s what he thought. Regardless of the fact that you say that you do not want to exclude any parties, you can also say: ‘I will stand for that, because Khalid and people who look like Khalid are also Dutch and belong and should not be excluded.’”
‘I am a liberal’
Yesilgöz understands Khalid’s concerns, but: “That is why I am in politics and I don’t change that. I understand very well that you say: ‘But if you don’t rule it out in advance, that’s how I experience it.’ I respect that too. I am happy that I can explain to you and look you in the eye that that is the opposite of what I wish.”
She concludes: “I am a liberal, I got into politics to stand up for your rights and I always will. I will also judge every conversation partner at such a table on that.”
Fragment
The excerpt from Khalid & Sophie: