Minister Dennis Wiersma (Education, VVD) issued a new response on Saturday to the reports about his cross-border behavior at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). On his Instagram page he says he is disappointed that “[ik] too sharp and sometimes too fierce”. Contrary to what Wiersma said on Friday, he indicates in his response that there may be “earlier signals, from longer ago” that have eluded him.
Wiersma’s response follows new revelations into Saturday The Telegraph. The newspaper writes that Wiersma would have misbehaved over a long period of time towards employees and officials of the VVD party and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (SZW), where Wiersma was State Secretary from August 2021 to January 2022. So writes The Telegraph that employees left the VVD party room crying because of Wiersma and that he was known at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment for “his fury and anger”.
Several reports to the VVD party
NRC wrote on Friday about the behavior of the minister in his current department, where Wiersma would behave like a temper frog. “He can explode about messages that he does not like or if innovations do not go fast enough in his eyes,” writes NRC. The article also refers to an incident in which Wiersma lashes out at a headmistress of a school.
After the Council of Ministers on Friday, Wiersma responded to this report and stated that he had received “no specific signals” that he had exhibited transgressive behavior in his previous positions. In the article on Saturday in The Telegraph however, this is contradicted.
The newspaper cites sources at the VVD who say that several reports have previously been made about Wiersma’s behavior in the VVD fraction. The 37-year-old minister is said to have been whistled back by the party leadership. In his new statement on Saturday, Wiersma states that he will investigate his own behavior in previous positions.
Also read this piece about Dennis Wiersma: The minister who occasionally explodes