Parliamentarian Grethe van Geffen, who was expelled from the VVD party in the province in September last year, is taking her former party members to court. This is how she responds to her dismissal by the party. “It is substantively and legally unacceptable that I have been expelled from the group.”
Van Geffen herself would have preferred it to be resolved internally, she writes in a statement. She is said to have made several attempts to resolve the situation, but they have failed. So now a lawsuit follows: “It has not been possible to arrange through another route, time is running out to get on the list,” she tells NH Nieuws.
†I have received a lot of personal support from VVD members and directors, but for solving this particular situation I am getting to the faction referred back.”
In a statement she writes about the “to dare raiseand of the behavior of those in power† that according to her “in the VVD North Holland is an unforgivable mistake for which I must pay dearly. The idea that I may have been genuinely bothered by certain behaviors does not occur to them. You are treated like someone who just goes around accusing and manipulating.”
Van Geffen hopes that the judge will rule in her favor with regard to the wrongful vote from the group. “I want to return to the group, because I was illegally expelled. I do not expect new misery, but we will have to find a new balance. I expect that there will be many people who will cooperate when I go back,” she tells NH Nieuws .
‘Untenable situation’
VVD North Holland left know at the time that an ‘unsustainable situation’ had arisen with Member of Parliament Van Geffen. According to the VVD, there had been friction between the States member and the faction for some time. That is why she was expelled from the party, the group said.
According to the party, Van Geffen has been causing unrest for some time by, among other things, sharing points of view on social media that were not aligned within the group, and which, moreover, did not always fall well. The Member of Parliament would also have made allegations of intimidation without substantiation. Last Saturday she was expelled from the group by a two-thirds majority.
Party chairman Erik van der Maas responds that he ‘looks forward to the lawsuit with confidence’. He is counting on a good outcome and stands by his previous decisions. He says ‘what Van Geffen claims to dispute’ and argues that it is incorrect that she has made multiple attempts to resolve it.
Van der Maas does not want to go into the substance of the case before the lawsuit. The hearing is on July 14 at 2.30 pm.