VVD member Ockje Tellegen has Friday announced not to return as a Member of Parliament. She had been on leave since February to recover from burnout. “I regret not finishing my term,” but “feel my body won’t stop hurting until I do what it needs/what it needs,” she wrote in a statement.
Being an MP “requires a good dose of self-care,” she writes, “that you can set your limits, say no” and “a healthy dose of vanity and a solid layer of Teflon”. “All things that I was not always good at or had access to over the past 11 years, which resulted in looting.” She calls on MPs to take good care of each other, to look after each other. In order to cope with all the problems in the country, “it is important that we all stay together,” she tells them.
Tellegen is not the only MP who has left with a burnout in recent years. Earlier this week, PvdD party leader Esther Ouwehand announced that she is temporarily leaving the House of Representatives due to health problems related to overload. Member of parliament Pieter Omtzigt was at home for a number of months at the beginning of 2021 after he became overwrought.