It was a huge shock for Lucille Werner two and a half years ago. At the start of her political career, she was brutally butchered in De 5 Hour Show. How does she look back on that now?
Lucille Werner has become famous as a presenter of superficial programs such as Lingo, but in 2020 she made the switch to politics. At the end of that year she was severely attacked in De 5 Hour Show and Lucille, now a Member of Parliament for the CDA, was absolutely not used to that.
“This is outrageous!”
The notorious opinion maker Victor Vlam decided to test Lucille as well. “You can just give your opinion, can’t you?” he shouted at one point. “I think you were put on that list because you are a well-known Dutch person and they hope that you will attract votes. (…) You now also have to be pulled to get an answer out of it.”
Things really went from bad to worse when it turned out that Lucille could not give clear answers. Victor: “I actually think it’s pretty outrageous that you literally can’t answer that. And then you have taken a place on that list from people who therefore deserve it more.”
Nightmares
It is inevitable that Lucille drove home that day with a stomach ache and that she had nightmares about it for a long time. It wasn’t until months later that she wanted to say anything about it. “At that moment I was like: geez, should I find something about fireworks now?”, the former presenter complained.
We are now two and a half years later and Lucille is maturing as a politician. “You have suddenly become very visible,” says political reporter Leendert Beekman to her on BNR Nieuwsradio.
Emergency exit
Lucille admits she has come out of her shell. “You know, a first year like that… Then you really prefer to just go into hiding, because you come from such a different world and suddenly you’re in politics. And then you also think: what a madness, what is happening here? Can I still leave somewhere? Where is the emergency exit? All those emotions really pass.”
She continues: “It really is a profession. You really have to learn a lot of things. You’re going to watch the cat out of the tree a bit like: gee, motions, amendments, what can I actually do? It’s all very technical. So you have to master that a bit. To eventually discover a little bit of oh, I can do this or I can do that.”
TV slaughter
Then Leendert brings up that violent TV massacre in De 5 Hour Show. “I can still remember very well: before the elections you were attacked enormously at the 5 Hour Show by Victor Vlam.”
BNR host Wilfred Genee: “Yes, he is trying to rebel against everyone at the moment, but keep going.”
Leendert: “He actually said then: ‘You come to the Chamber because you are a well-known Dutchman. There are a lot of people who do a lot in society and you take the spot, the room spot actually.’ Have you now proved him wrong, do you think?”
On the right track
Lucille believes she has proven Victor wrong. “Well, I think I’ve been doing pretty well the last few months. I always say: I am a woman on a mission. I have done a lot in the media for people with disabilities and that is what I also want to do in The Hague.”
“I think that lately I have managed to get the House to vote in favor of quite a few motions that have been advised against. And those are movements that a cabinet actually does not want, but I do want, and in which you also move the House in that direction, that the cabinet has to.”
Fragment
The clip of Lucille’s TV massacre: