Hi Pieter, hello Dilan, hey Frans and hey Caroline. Presenter Twan Huys had already had all party leaders on his stage, hence the warm welcome for all four at the first election debate for the national elections of November 22. Two ‘old’ parties with new faces: Dilan Yesilgöz for VVD and Frans Timmermans for GroenLinks-PvdA. Two (fairly) new parties with already familiar faces: Caroline van der Plas for BBB and Pieter Omtzigt for NSC. Omtzigt had previously said that he had little sympathy for those television debates that involved one-liners and snide remarks. He was, he said, more of a man for content. But this debate either seemed substantive enough to him in advance or he could not afford not to attend. Anyway, he was there.
And it became quite a substantive debate, with good questions from students, tight leadership from Twan Huys and quite a few sneers and disapproving snorts on both sides. Especially – it must be said – from Dilan Yesilgöz who kicked off with the joke she also made a few weeks ago when she was a guest on the College tour. Her first vote went to the SP when she was 18 and still thought she was left-wing. “So everything can still turn out well,” she shouted to the students.
The first question came from a legal science student. About Israel and Gaza, and whether Israel violated international law of war there. Frans Timmermans answered with a resounding ‘yes’. Immediately followed by: “But also by Hamas.” Caroline van der Plas stopped short of condemning the terrorist acts of Hamas and Pieter Omtzigt brought the conflict to the Netherlands. Or rather: that’s what he warned about. “What happens there results in increasing hatred against Jews here.”
The law student picked up the thread of his question and referred to Israel as a “self-declared democracy.” He was the first, but certainly not the only student of the evening who was quite gifted rhetorically. I give you the task of asking a relevant question coherently for such an audience. I didn’t see exactly who was shouting “now, now, now” from the podium in defense of the democratic state of Israel, but I think it was in unison.
On to a history student who bared his soul in the audience. More than a year ago, the GP diagnosed him with “acute suicidality”. He said he had to wait a year and a half before he could see a psychologist. Caroline van der Plas answered his question with the same candor. Her eldest son, she said, was in a similar situation. So of course she thinks more money should go to mental health care. Pieter Omtzigt saw (again) an opportunity for a close-to-home comment. “It would also help if the training for psychologists were in Dutch.”
The only one-liner came from Omtzigt, of all people, when he has to say whether he is available as prime minister or not. “The chair is not the goal.” It becomes clear that nuclear energy splits Timmermans from the other three. They want it, he doesn’t. Timmermans tried to reach out to the BBB when he said that they will ‘work together’ to resolve the nitrogen crisis when it comes to building homes. But Van der Plas roughly knocked the hand away. “Nitrogen is not the problem.” Pieter Omtzigt was asked point-blank with which of the three on stage he sees himself in a coalition. His answer took as long as Yesilgöz’s to the same question, and nothing came. “If there is just as much bullshit in the coalition, I don’t feel like it anymore,” says Caroline van der Plas. She says: “I want to be with Pieter.” And who does Frans want to be with? Not with the VVD. And judging by Yesilgöz’s face, it is completely mutual.