The parliamentary inquiry into the approach to the corona crisis can only be followed by the outside world from spring 2025, when public hearings with ministers and virologists begin. The controversial Sywert deal is not one of the main themes of the investigation.
Members of the preparatory committee of inquiry confirm this to this news site. Very soon, the Temporary Corona Committee will send its research plan to the House of Representatives. The survey wants to ‘learn lessons’ to be better prepared for the next health crisis. But the corona pandemic was so extensive that the investigation will drag on for years to come, say those involved.
Interrogations
In the coming two years, the committee will be busy with file research and behind-the-scenes discussions. The public hearings will not start until May 2025, after the planned elections for the House of Representatives. That is more than five years after the first corona patient in the Netherlands. Leading players such as Hugo de Jonge, Mark Rutte, Jaap van Dissel and Ernst Kuipers are expected to show up.
Various lockdown measures – school closure, curfew – will be examined, as will the situation in nursing homes and hospitals.
The controversial million-dollar deal with mouth cap dealer Sywert van Lienden is not being investigated separately, the sources say. Although there are still loose ends about the precise role of then CDA minister Hugo de Jonge of Health in the mega order, committee members do not find a specific sub-investigation logical at the moment. “Sywert is already on the grill,” says one member. The Public Prosecution Service is conducting a criminal investigation into Van Lienden and associates. Another says: “Sywert is a crook, there will always be crooks.” That is why the committee focuses ‘on the structures behind it’.
In an earlier parliamentary debate it was about the Sywert deal, Van Lienden himself was sitting in the public gallery at the time.
One member of the committee of inquiry says that it is also complicated to investigate the Sywert deal because independent MP Pieter Omtzigt – himself a member of the preparatory committee – also had ties with Van Lienden in the initial phase of the corona crisis. It would be a pity ‘if Pieter cannot attend the interrogations because of this’.
A spokesman for the House of Representatives ‘cannot say anything’ to questions about the duration of the preparatory phase and the themes that the committee wants to investigate. He does confirm that the research proposal will soon be sent to parliament.
Incidentally, it is highly uncertain whether the members of the preparatory committee will also sit on the standing committee of inquiry. The work swallows up a parliamentarian almost full-time for a long period of time, something that members of small factions – such as Wybren van Haga – and solo MPs like Omtzigt and Liane den Haan can hardly afford.
Public expressions
The fact that the committee with Pepijn van Houwelingen (Forum for Democracy) and Van Haga (BVNL) has two extremely coronaskeptic members has not led to major substantive divisions, according to various sources. There was, however, quite a bit of fuss about the public statements by parliamentarians about corona: MPs often keep a low profile about the theme they are researching.
But one committee member says: “We ask questions such as: did the cabinet make the right decision with the knowledge of that moment? Whatever you think of corona: we all want to know the answer to that question.”
Watch all our videos about politics here:
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss a thing of the stars.