National Security Council leader Peter Omtzigt believes that not all ministers in the new Schöff government are aware of their new responsibility. He is mainly referring to Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber of the PVV, who said earlier this week on RTL News that he “does not support the headscarf” and “usually wears a hat when it rains”.

After taking the oath, RTL asked Faber about her views on the headscarf in the Netherlands. Her answer was: I personally don’t support the headscarf, but they have the right to wear it. I personally don’t support it, but I can imagine that when it’s raining and the wind is blowing hard, you put something on your head. I usually wear a hat.

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National Security Council leader Omtzigt has nothing good to say about this response. “I thought it was a strange and unworldly comment,” he says on BNR’s The Friday Move. Looking at Faber’s statement, he replies: “I had the impression among a number of ministers that it would take some time before they got used to the responsibilities and the gravity of their position.”

No appointments

A large part of the discussion on the second day of the government statement yesterday was dominated by the question of how the PVV ministers view the headscarf. PVV ministers Faber and Fleur Agema had previously made comments about the headscarf of GroenLinks-PvdA MP Ismah Lahlah. For example, Faber shared a message that mentioned the “PvdA headscarf”. Prime Minister Dick Schoof was asked about this during the discussion.

Within the new coalition, Omtzigt says, nothing has been deliberately agreed on the headscarf, except that women are no longer allowed to wear religious symbols. “The Freedom Party states in its election manifesto that it does not want the headscarf in the House of Representatives, but we have not reached that agreement in this partnership. So I will not be the first to raise this issue.”

tasteless snack

According to Omtzigt, politics did not show its best side in yesterday’s debate. “The debate was about everything, but not about the urgent problems we need to solve in the Netherlands. I’m afraid we saw a sad side of politics.

Omtzigt was also disturbed by the fact that Prime Minister Schoof was immediately attacked by PVV leader Geert Wilders in his first debate. Wilders called the prime minister “weak” because, according to Wilders, he had not responded strongly enough to the comments of Esther Ouwehand of the Animals Party. He said there were “two racists” in the government.

“I thought it was completely inappropriate what Wilders did when he accused the prime minister of being ‘weak’ in his first debate,” Omtzigt says. Asked whether he had also confronted Wilders about this behind the scenes, Omtzigt did not want to answer directly. “But you can count on me to be as clear as possible.”

The head of the National Security Council praises the prime minister for his actions. “I have high hopes for Prime Minister Schoof, who stood there like a statesman. We gave him every reason to do so, because the rest did not behave in this way. Schoof said today that he did not expect Wilders’ attack to come. “It seems to me clearly that he was unpleasantly surprised,” says Omtzigt. “But he was there.”

no regret

Omtzigt says he still doesn’t regret entering into a coalition with the Freedom Party. “We still feel a constitutional distance between us and the Freedom Party. I don’t regret it, but things really need to get a lot better now.