Much has been said and written about Pieter Omtzigt’s fits of rage. He was sitting at the table at Op1 last night and was asked about it, just like his new colleagues.
Pieter Omtzigt will have to answer for it in every major interview: his burnout and his fits of anger. He also once went on a very serious rampage in a television studio, namely behind the scenes at HLF8. “He was shouting quite a bit until the editor did not want to continue talking to him,” he said at the time.
Angry Peter
It’s all quite juicy and that’s why many people want to know the ins and outs. Omtzigt was in the Op1 studio last night, together with the members of his new faction, and he cannot avoid it there either. “Are you actually of impeccable behavior?” begins presenter Sven Kockelmann.
A somewhat hesitant answer follows. “As far as the Certificate of Good Conduct is concerned, yes. Have I ever been angry? Yes, of course I have been angry at times, especially at the time that just before and just after that burnout I suffered greatly from it and also felt quite misunderstood, while I saw that something was going completely wrong in the state and I didn’t get through anything.”
Complaints
Will there be another scandal about this? Tij van den Brink wants to know: “Can there be or will be complaints about this?”
Omtzigt: “Um, if complaints have been filed about this, I have not been informed of this by the media or the CDA or whatever.”
Tijs: “Do you ever say afterwards, perhaps when you look back now, that I sometimes went too far in anger? We have also read these kinds of anecdotes in columns and in newspapers and things like that. Never very specific, but…”
Not so angry
Yes, Omtzigt answers. “Um, yes, then I think afterwards: I shouldn’t have gotten so angry, yes. But if you look at how things went during that period, I am not proud of that.”
Political reporter Thomas van Groningen: “I refer to a Telegraaf column that once said about flying projectiles in rooms and such. Do you recognize that or is that nonsense?”
Omtzigt: “Well, I don’t recognize that, no.”
Difficult man
Tijs then starts quoting from an NRC article: “There are crying employees who feel shortchanged by Omtzigt. It wasn’t always easy working for him. Not only in his own faction, but more broadly in the House of Representatives, Omtzigt is seen as a difficult person to work with. He is behaving erratically.”
Then Tijs turns to the public gallery, which is filled with Omtzigt’s list of candidates. “All of you sitting here know those stories too. How did you listen to them and how do you read those stories? Who wants to say something about that?”
Uncomfortable
It leads to a somewhat uncomfortable situation. It’s as if someone on the candidate list then shouts that he has also had an argument with Omtzigt. Tijs chuckles: “Yes, now is of course a difficult time to raise your hand.”
Of course, only kind and supportive words follow for Omtzigt. The politician himself finds it difficult to respond: “If you don’t put a name to it and you say: ‘Did that happen?’ I also see all kinds of things about me in the media that make me think: I don’t recognize any of this at all…”