That is what Minister Yeşilgöz of Justice informs the House of Representatives. A boa with a headscarf, something that a majority in the House of Representatives has difficulty with, should therefore not become part of the street scene. The cities of Utrecht and Arnhem announced last year that they wanted to allow religious expressions, such as headscarves and skullcaps, for boas after motions were passed in their municipal councils.
Neutrality
Parties such as PVV and VVD then protested. The House of Representatives passed a number of motions, which include calls for a ban on the headscarf on boas, and for the neutrality of boa uniforms to be regulated nationally instead of locally.
Yeşilgöz writes emphatically that he attaches great importance to the neutrality of the police and boa. “Functions in which the government manifests itself in society with the help of the strong arm and makes use of means of coercion perform a special government task,” the minister writes. That is the basis of the police uniform. There is no discussion about that, according to the minister.
The situation is different for boas because they are employed by municipalities. Ferd Grapperhaus, the predecessor of Yeşilgöz, emphasized several times last year that the headscarf at boas is a local issue, which the municipalities themselves deal with. But “the House of Representatives has clearly spoken out in favor of arranging the neutrality of the boa uniform nationally,” Yeşilgöz writes on Friday. The directive it wants to develop must resemble the rules that apply to the police uniform, where complete neutrality is central.