The SGP wanted to meet quickly. The members of the House of Representatives and their staff had sat down together in the corridor behind the large debating chamber. Pieter Omtzigt walked past, he took a seat next to Kees van der Staaij. Lisa Westerveld of GroenLinks got a chair, Jesse Klaver leaned against a pillar. Lilian Marijnissen and Peter Kwint of the SP stopped to listen.
Last Thursday night. In the debate with CDA member Hugo de Jonge about the face mask deal with Sywert van Lienden, Caroline van der Plas (BBB) had said that she would submit a motion of censure against him. There was already a much more serious vote of no confidence – from the PvdA, which also bears her name. But that did not make it, the coalition parties VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie were against it, and the SGP.
Van der Plas had come up with the idea of such a different motion during the dinner break: disapproval. To get De Jonge to resign. With Mark Rutte, last year in the debate about the ‘function elsewhere’ memorandum, it would not have mattered. But Sigrid Kaag had resigned as minister after an adopted motion of censure on the evacuations from Afghanistan. So it was possible.
What happened in the hallway is what you get with a lot of fractions, like now. All with their own way of standing out or being effective, or making others small. Van der Plas, contrary to the custom of The Hague, had not consulted anyone. “I thought,” she says now, “that everyone should let their heart speak.” De Jonge had first said that he had not interfered with the deal, but it was different.
What would the SGP do? Everyone around Van der Staaij wanted to know. If he supported the motion of censure, the coalition would be left alone – that put pressure on De Jonge. It was unique, says Van der Staaij in his office on Tuesday: “Our first public group meeting.” He gets it. “You are all the opposition. Then you should try to coordinate plans. A loose shot of hail is of no use.”
When Jesse Klaver knew that the SGP was against the motion of censure, he continued to Caroline van der Plas, in the corner of the room with FVD, PVV, JA21. “He was suddenly behind me,” she says. “I thought: what are you doing here?”
He came to say that it was unusual for her, as a co-signer to the motion of no confidence, “the toughest means”, to also come up with a motion of censure. As a backup. In any case, GroenLinks and the PvdA did not support it. Van der Plas hesitated, she withdrew the motion, and then she didn’t.
That is why 52 MPs from twelve political groups thought that Hugo de Jonge should resign immediately. And only 24 – from PVV, FVD, Groep Van Haga, BBB and one from JA21 – disapproved of what he had done. Surely no voter was still looking.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of April 14, 2022