Caroline van der Plas did not simply cancel her interview with AD journalist Elodie Verweij. “Yes, I don’t really like that you were walking around our hallways either.”
Political reporter Elodie Verweij has devoted an entire article to it in the AD: Caroline van der Plas has canceled her interview with the newspaper. Nice and interesting, you might say, but Elodie really makes a fuss of it. Last night she sat at the table with Jeroen Pauw, who took her in Pauw & De Wit asks, “Is that even an issue?”
‘A bit strange’
Elodie thinks Van der Plas’ cancellation is indeed a thing. “Yes, in that sense, because we are the largest newspaper in the Netherlands and we are mainly the newspaper for regional titles and they would like to reach the region. What better way to do that than through us?”
She continues: “We thought it was a shame that she had first agreed, a month and a half ago, and then suddenly cancelled, actually with a very lame text message. We could no longer get hold of her spokesperson and actually neither could we, so then it suddenly happened. schluss. Then it’s a bit strange.”
In the hallway
Jeroen wonders what’s strange. “Do you think: something is going on here?”
Elodie then: “Well, of course we think so, but her response was: ‘It really doesn’t fit into my agenda’, so you can believe that, but then we heard at a certain point that she had also canceled the Volkskrant and NU.nl and Trouw. She eventually managed to move NU.nl and Trouw, so that was not an agenda issue.”
She continues: “So then you also ask about what is really going on. I spoke to her yesterday and she said casually: ‘Yes, I don’t really like the fact that you were walking around our hallways either.’ So… Yeah… What is it then?”
In the hallway
Jeroen does not really understand the objection. “You’re not allowed to walk around in the hallway?”
Elodie finally: “Yes, of course I had written an article that she did not like very much. It was about the right-wing move of BBB and I also spoke to employees about that. I understand that that is of course not funny, but yes, it was just a factual statement and they did not like that, so it was canceled.”