Rutger Castricum has brutally attacked minister Wopke Hoekstra in front of the camera of his TV program De Hofbar. “Why are you going to be so arrogant to me?”
Two months ago, Wopke Hoekstra, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, tried to win over his CDA supporters by planting a bomb under the nitrogen policy. He withdrew his hands from the government’s goal of reducing nitrogen emissions by half by 2030. “That year is not sacred.”
“Holy or not?”
Although the minister chose to announce this in a AD interview, we didn’t hear from Wopke after that. Political reporter Rutger Castricum asked him last week how he feels about this, but then he wanted to wait for the government’s response to Johan Remkes’ nitrogen advice.
Now that response from the cabinet is there, but Wopke does not want to respond yet. And that while Rutger does his best: “Mr Hoekstra, good day, hello. Well, there is finally the government’s response to the Remkes report, so the question is: is the 2030 sacred or not?
Wopke measured: “I just did that with your colleagues.”
“You act arrogant!”
Rutger reacts very irritated. “With my colleagues? What do I have to do with that? Last time you walked away so angry, that regent-like angry.”
Wopke: “Angry? Not at all.”
Rutger: “Yes, why are you so annoyed about that? You hold an interview in the AD, you shout from the towers that you think differently. Then the report is there, then the response of the cabinet is there and then you will be so arrogant to me?”
‘I’m making a point’
Then Wopke is fed up. “No, you know that, I won’t. Let’s make a point. My colleagues are going to answer it shortly. We have discussed that report in the cabinet, and that is how it should be.”
Rutger: “Do you still stand by the words you used then? So is the 2030 not sacred? That’s a very normal question, isn’t it?”
Wopke states that Rutger is now interviewing him as a minister and not as a CDA leader: “This is on behalf of the cabinet. I’m making a point now.”
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