The executive committee of the House of Representatives led by chairman Vera Bergkamp (D66) has lost the confidence of the Works Council (OR). That is what OR chairman Michel Meerts said on Saturday in television program news hour. Last Friday, the entire top officials of the House of Representatives resigned with immediate effect, due to dissatisfaction with the way in which the investigation into possible cross-border behavior involving former Speaker of the House Khadija Arib (PvdA) was handled.
“I don’t think Bergkamp would be able to glue the shards together,” said Works Council chairman Meerts. “The damage is too great. There is no longer any confidence in the civil service in the entire political top of the House of Representatives”. For Meerts, a new presidency, in which seven MPs sit in addition to chairman Bergkamp, is the only way out of the current crisis. He would then allow the resigned management team to return.
According to Simone Roos, the registrar and highest official of the House of Representatives who resigned on Friday, the investigation into former Speaker of the House Arib has been “made political”. In an e-mail to employees of the House of Representatives, Roos wrote that it was “unacceptable” to find that officials have entered the debate about the investigation and that their integrity is being questioned. Roos wrote that it was regrettable that “the political leadership” had not defended itself sufficiently against this.
‘Keep things together’
Bergkamp, who was criticized, said after the departure of her management team that there was “enough” to glue the pieces together: “I want to keep things together”. She said the investigation into Arib is continuing and made it clear she had no intention of resigning. The Works Council will meet early next week. The presidency also wants the House to make a decision on whether or not the investigation will go ahead.
About a month and a half ago, the Presidium of the House of Representatives decided to conduct an external investigation into Arib, about her time as Speaker of the House. Arib had to read in the newspaper that she was under investigation because the announcement of the investigation was leaked to NRC. This was followed by several, mostly anonymous stories about the working conditions under Arib, who was Speaker of the House between 2016 and 2021. On 1 October of this year, Arib announced that he would leave the House of Representatives.
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