“Ladies and gentlemen, I give the floor first to the spokesman of the PVV party, Mr Uppelschoten. The speaking time is three minutes. Go ahead.” King’s Commissioner Jetta Klijnsma gives the floor to Nico Uppelschoten, leader of the PVV in Drenthe, during a debate on nitrogen.
He starts talking. The three minutes fly by. It will be three and a half, four and four and a half minutes. Jetta Klijsma, as CdK chairman of the Provincial Council, intervenes. “Mr Uppelschoten, you are already way over your speaking time, can you finish?” He responds, “Then I’ll round you up now.”
That will take some time to complete, because Uppelschoten wants to submit three motions – proposals. The first follows. He says what it is about and starts to explain why he is submitting this proposal. “Because despite the fact that…” Halfway through the sentence we hear Klijnsma again: “Continue with the second motion, because you are really way over your time.”
And then there will be a third. All in all, Uppelschoten spoke for almost six and a half minutes, where he actually had three minutes of speaking time.
Nico Uppelschoten, 78 years old, appears to have spoken the most in Drenthe politics. Spread over all meetings of the Provincial Council, he spoke for 8 hours and 34 minutes. Anry Kleine Deters, party chairman of D66, follows with just over six and a half hours. This is evident from research by RTV Drenthe.
Over the past four years, a total of more than 179 hours of meetings have been held at the Provincial Council. That is just over a week of uninterrupted meetings.
The PVV has said something most often in the Drenthe Parliament. The party spoke exactly fourteen hours. The VVD follows with ten and a half hours. It is striking that Nico Uppelschoten has spoken more in politics on his own than the entire group of GroenLinks, Party for the Animals, SP, ChristenUnie, Forum for Democracy, JA21, Sterk Lokaal and STIP.
Besides the fact that Uppelschoten also spoke the longest, he was also the most often at the microphone. He has contributed 635 times to political discussions, speaking for an average of 49 seconds. Kleine Deters has been featured 488 times, Thomas Blinde (JA21) 470 times and Bert Vorenkamp (PVV) 468 times.
STIP, Sonja Kort’s party, has had the shortest say. She spoke for just over 24 minutes. She separated from the PVV at the end of 2021 and continued as a loose group. On behalf of the PVV, she spoke for almost half an hour in the Provincial Council.
The party 50PLUS has spoken even less, but that party was only two meetings in the Drenthe Parliament. Frank Duut spoke for that party for five and a half minutes. After that he was involved in politics for two meetings on behalf of Fraction van Frank Duut, after which he started his own party OpDrenthe. He has now been in the group of JA21 since 2021.
VVD member Roelof Oosting has been the least heard of the members of parliament. His two contributions to the Provincial Council total 1 minute and 15 seconds. It should be noted that he has been in the Provincial Council since April 13 last year. Oosting was installed at the same time as Sam Pormes (GroenLinks). Pormes has since spoken for 1 hour and 12 minutes.
Ceciel Mentink, Member of Parliament for the CDA, spoke for an average of 26 seconds per meeting. Only Roelof Oosting spent less time behind the microphone on average per meeting. Mentink spoke in eight of the 37 meetings. In total, she spoke for just fifteen minutes.
Janny Roggen of the PvdA also spoke less than the other members of parliament. She talked for 19 minutes in the 36 meetings she attended.
Conversely, Thea Potharst of the Party for the Animals stands out. She was in the Provincial Council until March 2021, after which she was replaced by Renate Zuiker. But Potharst said the most on average per meeting she attended. She attended eighteen meetings, speaking on average for more than sixteen minutes.
Apart from Nico Uppelschoten, there is another huge outlier. That’s Jetta Klijnsma. As the King’s Commissioner, she is also the President of Parliament. She leads the debates. In the role of chairman, Klijnsma spoke for more than 44 hours. In addition, she spoke for about 38 minutes as the king’s commissioner, as part of the college. This happens, for example, when questions are asked from the Provincial Council about her portfolio. Like the reception of Ukrainians.
In the event that she speaks as part of the college, the presidency will be taken over by someone else. In the first instance this is done by Ralph du Long (PvdA), and if he can’t, Thomas Blinde (JA21) will. Ton Serlie (VVD) has already taken on that role. That’s been going on for an hour now. Remarkable: Du Long has been active more often as (vice) chairman (1 hour and 16 minutes) than for his own party (45 minutes).
Henk Jumelet spoke the longest in the lecture: eight and a half hours, during which he often talked about nitrogen and nature. Nelleke Vedelaar has been the least discussed, but she has been on the board since December 2021. She is the replacement for Cees Bijl.