Just as VVD party leader Dilan Yesilgöz still does not completely rule out the PVV for a coalition, on Saturday morning she carefully keeps open the option that she wants to enter into a debate, one on one, with Pieter Omtzigt of NSC. “But only,” she says, on a campaign in Amersfoort, “if there are still some open ends. My agenda is packed.” The answer seems to be: we don’t do that.
In Deventer, in a lecture, Omtzigt had said on Friday evening that he had asked her for a similar debate as previously with Frans Timmermans of GroenLinks-PvdA: an hour with the two of them on a stage, this time about social security. It can be heard around Yesilgöz that it is not Pieter Omtzigt, as far as the VVD is concerned, who determines the rules in this campaign. Yesilgöz says that Omtzigt would have been welcome at the party leader radio debate on Friday evening, where the other party leaders were present. Omtzigt then gave his lecture in Deventer. And she said that they will see each other on Sunday evening: in the RTL debate. “Organized by independent journalists.” Not by two parties themselves.
Dilan Yesilgöz brought her husband René and her dog with her to Amersfoort. “Hey, here are buttons,” Yesilgöz shouts at the Pig Market, before she walks into the shopping street with her flyers. “René, where are you? René chooses Dilan.”
Informed in advance
After a VVD meeting in Woerden two weeks ago, Yesilgöz had also taken to the streets, very briefly. She then went to chat, surrounded by cameras, with two young people who, it turned out, were VVD members who were handing out flyers for their party. They were already ready for that scene. According to the VVD, it was a misunderstanding and it should not have happened this way. In Amersfoort, VVD members said this Saturday, only the entrepreneurs with whom Yesilgöz will talk have been informed in advance. Such as former journalist Dirk-Jan Stip from Coffee Corazon in the Krommestraat.
He says that the party did not know that he votes for the VVD. “I wasn’t asked, and they couldn’t have known: I have voted for the PvdA all my life but have now switched. Out of gratitude.” According to Stip, entrepreneurs have been very well taken care of during the corona period. He does not yet know whether he will continue to vote for the VVD from now on. “If they are going to govern with FVD, certainly not.” And the PVV? Dirk-Jan Stip hesitates. “You should talk to everyone. But the rule of law is the most important thing for me.”
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Pieter Omtzigt wants a one-on-one debate with VVD leader Yesilgöz about social security