Mariëlle Tweebeeke is considered one of the strongest interviewers in the country, but even she is no match for Pieter Omtzigt. “Unfortunately, this will not be a Sonja Barend Award!”
If you even wipe the floor with Mariëlle Tweebeeke, it will be very difficult for her fellow journalists. Pieter Omtzigt took over the conversation News hour last night completely about when the TV journalist was let down by her knowledge of facts. “No, you just denied it was there and now you know it!”
Prime Ministerial candidate
Omtzigt does not yet know who his prime ministerial candidate is and there is a lot of fuss about this in the media. Unjustified, he says in the Nieuwsuur studio. “In the Dutch system, the prime minister is not that important at all. It is a first among equals.”
Mariëlle: “Yes, on paper perhaps, but look at reality.”
Omtzigt: “Yes, and that is exactly where it went wrong. We have been governed from the Torentje or from the Catshuis for the past twelve years and the Catshuis is even more problematic because he simply invited a few ministers there and then simply made decisions about corona.”
‘That is not true!’
Mariëlle then accuses Omtzigt of lying. “Yes, I heard you say that, but that is of course not true. That is of course not true.”
Omtzigt surprised: “Why is it not true?”
Mariëlle: “That is of course not true. You pretend – and you have already done so a few times – as if no decisions are made in the House of Representatives, but everything that has been discussed in the Catshuis must of course ultimately also be passed by the House of Representatives.”
Omtzigt: “Well, let’s take the example of the compensation scheme for benefit parents. That decision was made in the Catshuis…”
‘Excuse me?!’
Mariëlle interrupts him: “By democratically elected representatives of the people…”
Omtzigt frowns: “Excuse me?”
Mariëlle: “Aren’t those all elected people sitting there?”
No, says Omtzigt. “Mrs. Van Huffelen? Wasn’t on a list. He made the decision outwardly and had not been elected anywhere. It involved 30 thousand euros. They called me from the Catshuis, I said: ‘Don’t do that, there are also people who have 100 or 200 euros in damage, so please.’”
Cabinet decision
Mariëlle then makes an incorrect assumption: “I assume it was a cabinet decision.”
Omtzigt explains in detail that it was not a cabinet decision (‘there were only three or four ministers’), but a policy decision by the minister. “And when it was discussed in Parliament four months later, tens of thousands of people had already received the 30,000 euros, so the House could not reverse it unless you had to visit those parents.”
And that would of course be indecent management, he continues. Mariëlle cuts him off: “Okay, of course we know this example, that’s true.”
Mrs Tweebeeke
Omtzigt reacts in surprise to Tweebeeke’s turn. “No, you just denied it was there and now you know it. I find that very interesting in itself, Mrs Tweebeeke.”
Journalist Ton Verlind, also former KRO boss, speaks X of a ‘bad interview’. “She does not master the material, but nevertheless enters into confrontation, loses her patience and her grip. As a result, there is no way to make sense of it and a nasty underlying atmosphere. I don’t think this will be a Sonja Barend Award.”
Viewers say that Mariëlle is ‘dripping off’ and a certain Robin states: “Pieter Omtzigt, the gladiator of arguments, trumps Mariëlle Tweebeeke with an impressive 10-0 victory.”
Ego issue
Story boss Guido den Aantrekker thinks that Omtzigt is doing very well. “It’s genius how Omtzigt shows Tweebeeke all the journalistic corners of the TV studio. The neck sweating mercilessly exposed.”
GeenStijl star Bart Nijman is surprised: “Tweebeeke, really not the worst interviewer on TV, is very vocal here when there is a bit of substantive contradiction and makes an ego issue out of a substantive explanation. Summarize the campaign level a bit – and also how high Omtzigt is above that.”
Fragment
The fragment: