The debate on the face mask deal on the last Wednesday before the Christmas recess has been going on for hours and irritation among members of the House of Representatives is increasing. According to the House of Representatives, Minister Conny Helder (Long-term Care and Sport, VVD) answers evasively about the exact role of her predecessor Hugo de Jonge (CDA) in the face mask deal. Did he or did he not put serious pressure on officials to make a deal with Sywert van Lienden? Helder has to consult a lot with her officials, promises to return to questions in writing. The opposition is not satisfied with this and demands that De Jonge himself come to parliament to answer, as was the case with the first debate on the deal in April. When the coalition spokespersons block that request, a number of MPs leave the meeting room angrily. Conny Helder watches it somewhat bewildered.
The derailed face mask debate symbolizes the political year of Helder, who has been minister for exactly one year in January. As an experienced former care administrator, she wants to make serious efforts to reform the stagnant care for the elderly, but was mainly lived by politically sensitive affairs, including her controversial visit to the World Cup in Qatar. At a large round table in her study, Helder looks back on her political baptism of fire this year.
What went wrong with that derailed debate?
“I don’t think so much. A number of MPs really wanted to hear a different answer, that De Jonge’s role was crucial. But that is not apparent from Deloitte’s research [over de mondkapjesdeal], I like to stick to the facts from the report. I am not going to adjust it because MPs want to hear a different answer.”
Were you shocked when MPs walked away?
“I have worked in healthcare for more than forty years and have experienced many emergency situations in which people react unexpectedly. It is also part of politics that tempers sometimes run a bit.”
Could you have given the House of Representatives better answers?
“No. I am always willing to learn things, but I feel I had a clear story. But I always say: criticism is free advice. I don’t have such a big ego either, so I don’t spend days thinking about it.”
That sounds very humble.
“I’m a fairly hypothermic type. When there is a lot of fuss, I always calm down. That has served me well as a director during the corona crisis. If you don’t keep a cool head when there are problems, you can’t manage well.”
Clear formulates carefully when it comes to politically sensitive matters such as the face mask deal. She occasionally looks at notes on her iPad. She would much rather and more easily talk about care. As Minister for Long-Term Care, she wants to prepare the Netherlands for a future with fewer healthcare workers and therefore less care. The elderly and their children must arrange more themselves and help each other. The motto in her policy program launched this summer is ‘Self if possible, at home if possible, digital if possible’.
What are you doing to solve the chronic staff shortage?
“The problem will not go away. Of course we work every day here at the ministry to retain people for care and to let new people inflow. That will work, but we will not succeed at the rate at which the demand for care will increase due to the aging population. So we have to organize healthcare differently. It also means that we have to reduce the demand for care, and we have to think about what a real care demand is, and what people can solve among themselves.”
What can people solve for themselves?
“In psychiatric care, mental health care, for example, there are huge waiting lists. Those are not just solved, that is tough matter. In Amsterdam I recently visited the Recovery Academy, where people who have experience with mental health problems help each other in the neighborhood. This way they can get on with their lives without it becoming a formal request for care.”
Should children take care of their old parents or take them back in?
“The old-fashioned way, with continuing to build nursing homes, is no longer tenable due to the staff shortage. So yes, people need to help each other more. Elderly people can live together in almshouses or with students in the neighbourhood. And yes, the elderly should think with their children about what they consider important later on. Which house do you want to move to, can you already put money aside?
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“I understand that there are people who read this and think: ‘God, I’m already so busy’. That counts for me too. But now people often do not think about this at all, it is no longer possible at home and there is often only one solution left: admission to a nursing home. You may wonder if you want to deliver your parents there. We prefer to keep people independent for so long that they can continue to live at home and do not need that care.”
That sounds like a very liberal view of the independent, self-reliant older person. Is that feasible for everyone?
“I really believe that older people can maintain their autonomy. It is very annoying to feel very dependent. Of course, not everyone can prepare sufficiently financially. That’s why I’m trying together with Hugo de Jonge [minister voor Volkshuisvesting en Ruimtelijke Ordening] to ensure that there are also sufficient forms of housing for the elderly with a small wallet.”
A few weeks ago, Helder was in Qatar, on the day that the Dutch national football team played against the host country at the World Cup. While the House of Representatives had called on the cabinet to boycott the tournament by motion. Behind the scenes, coalition partners grumbled about Helder. She is said to have spoken too little about human rights in advance, and did not wear the OneLove bracelet in the stands, but only a small pin.
Why not just that bracelet, to make a clear statement?
“That was a conscious choice, I have worn the pin more often. It was indeed noticed by the Qataris. I think it is more important that in the conversations with the Qatari ministers I was able to really explain what the OneLove campaign stands for, that it really is about combating exclusion and discrimination. I used the example of a fourteen-year-old girl in the Netherlands who gets all sorts of things thrown at her head on the football field because of her skin color. When I told them that, they understood the message very well. In the run-up to the tournament, it was very much interpreted by Qatar as a pointing finger from the West to the values of Qatari society.”
That understanding did not really seem to exist when the Qatari minister next to you demonstratively put on a pro-Palestinian bracelet.
“Yes, I saw that happen and I expected it. That was somewhat the standard response in Qatar, prompted by the perceived resistance to the OneLove campaign. But that image in the stands really does not do justice to the conversations I have had.”
Did your visit do more than explain the meaning of One Love to the Qatari?
“I think the most important result is that the Netherlands has kept open the dialogue with Qatar through my visit. This is important in view of the tensions in the world and possible future energy supplies. I also once again drew attention to the situation of migrant workers there.”
You also wore a scarf with the text ‘Never mind’ in the stands.
“That is a scarf that I have worn more often at sports competitions, it belongs to my orange set and I wear it because it is also a bit neat at my age. At a skating competition between Sven Kramer and Formula 1 in Zandvoort this year, no one noticed the text, not even my company and me. Of course I was disappointed by that text, after that it was only about the scarf, instead of my conversations with ministers and migrant workers. I thought it was a real shame that it was so enlarged.”