Tijs van den Brink has had an incredibly bad weekend due to Geert Wilders’ fierce criticism. “I received a lot of reactions and the bad thing is of course that he knows that.”
Lieveke Heijn is one of the people who took to the streets to demonstrate against the PVV’s election victory. She was in Op1 on Friday evening and clarified: “It was a demonstration against fascism.” Then host Tijs van den Brink asks her: “Okay, because you think Wilders is fascist?” She again: “Yes.”
Angry at Tijs
This goes too far, says Geert Wilders. He posted an angry message on Saturday afternoon X: “It’s unbelievable that Tijs van den Brink provokes this woman to call me a fascist. On national television. At the public broadcaster. A million people are listening. If there’s one crazy person, it’s enough. It’s already raining misery and now even more. Thank you, Tijs van den Brink.”
Tijs was on the talk show last night Van Roosmalen & Groenteman and was asked about the angry Wilders. “Do you think this is a sensitive question that you ask yourself?” said presenter Gijs Groenteman.
Ask further
This was an ordinary question, according to Tijs. “A clarifying question above all, like: what exactly do you mean when you protest against fascism two days after the election results? Then that must be related. I asked a further question.”
Tijs did not see Wilders’ personal accusation coming. “A day later this was, right? Saturday afternoon at two o’clock.”
Gijs: “Is that relevant? You mean, he was able to think about it carefully?”
Tijs: “Yes, it was not on impulse.”
Trouble
In other words: Wilders had some time to let it sink in, according to Tijs. “I saw it and I thought: oh, this is going to be a restless weekend, because you know that if someone tweets this about you, it will be busy on my phone, so I thought: okay, I’ll just call my boss to say it’s an issue and then I’ll just turn off my phone for a while.”
You then get a lot of shit all over you, he continues. “I understand very well that it is really terrible to be called a fascist. He says: ‘I’m in for a lot of misery.’ If you then respond by saying this to me, then you are actually doing the same to me and I think it’s bad. Then I will have to deal with all that misery.”
‘Horrible’
Has Tijs tried to reach Wilders? “I messaged him and he didn’t respond.” What does it say? “I don’t know if I want to say that.”
Does he know him well? “No, he hasn’t wanted to be interviewed by me, by us, for years. He has not been in Op1, not in This is the Day. In the past yes, but not in the last two years.”
All in all, Tijs finds the situation ‘not funny’. “The bad thing is of course that he knows it, because he experiences it himself and that he still chooses to do it… It’s allowed. Not nice.”
X
Wilders’ angry message: