Vera Bergkamp puts it on top in terms of sweetness during the children’s performance of the weekly question time. The chairman of the House of Representatives praises the young questioners to heaven. ‘What an excellent question, I think we are all curious about the answer’, she cooed when Zoë van den Burg from Tilburg primary school was behind the podium. The other children all ask ‘very good questions’, ‘very nice questions’ and ‘very important questions’.
After two and a half years of the corona break, the House of Representatives will revive the young tradition of the children’s question hour on Tuesday afternoon. This youth event debuted in November 2018 and was repeated a year later. Pupils in the top two groups of primary school are now allowed to play question time in the House of Representatives for the third time. They are allowed to ask five questions to real ministers. Interruptions and follow-up questions are allowed.
Political Jousting
The children’s question time should be a copy of the political joust that takes place every Tuesday between 2 and 3 pm in the plenary hall. During their question time, the adults invariably tap into current events. They question ministers sharply about their latest – alleged – policy failure, usually in response to some kind of media report. This Tuesday, D66 member Anne-Marijke Podt wants clarification from the State Secretary for Justice about the following news item from RTV Noord: ‘Crisis application center Ter Apel reaches low point: asylum seekers sleep for hours on a lawn’. Freek Jansen of Forum for Democracy asks in an angry tone why Climate Minister Rob Jetten wants to force home owners to purchase a heat pump from 2026.
The weekly adult question time is a parade of pranks. The only similarity between the original and the children’s version is the woolly answers of the ministers. Prime Minister Rutte, three ministers and a state secretary know that they have nothing to fear from questions such as: ‘What is being done about the rising water?’ and ‘What will change in agriculture in the coming years?’ Minister Harbers of Infrastructure and Minister Staghouwer of Agriculture can suffice with a summary of government policy. There is no serious questioning. You can’t expect that from 10- to 12-year-olds visiting parliament for the first time.
Group photo with the Prime Minister
The Prime Minister is always in his element when he can hit the cool peer mode. He gives Zoë from Tilburg, who wants to set up a children’s cabinet that submits ideas to Rutte’s government every month, a radiant smile. ‘I think it’s an exciting idea, but it’s very complicated to execute properly.’ He then makes the ‘promise’ that together with the ‘minister responsible for primary schools’ (Dennis Wiersma) he will look into how Zoë’s proposal can become a reality. Zoë’s teacher may have his 06 number. The children receive a box from the prime minister for taking the group photo. Another striking departure from the usual course of events: during the children’s debate, Rutte never once looked at his telephone. He listens attentively to his cabinet colleagues and the questioners from the room, an honor that ordinary MPs rarely receive.
Staghouwer is less able to hit the right tone. He asks the school class from Overijssel if they know what a farmer is. The children – Genemuiden is a rural village – look at him hazy. A girl asks why the farmers protest so often. According to Staghouwer, this is because politicians have consulted too little with farmers in recent years. ‘I am convinced that if we have a conversation with the farmers at the table, just back and forth… if you talk to each other and have the conversation with each other, then I am convinced that we can start the conversation with each other. ‘ After these clarifying words, the school class has no more questions.
Bergkamp concludes: ‘I hope you liked it. I personally thought you did a great job, as if you’ve been asking questions here for years. Of course also the ministers, because only five of them managed to answer all the difficult questions.’ State Secretary Eric van der Burg has to go straight to the real question time, but that is of course a breeze now.