The skirmish arose during a speech by Caroline van der Plas (BBB), who opposed “Woke Up” and said she does not see color, but rather people. “I saw Simmons was laughing at her outside the microphone,” Pertima says. “She always did that to me. I leaned over to her and asked her why she was so upset with white people. Where does this hate come from?”

Kindergarten

While Van der Plas spoke, Simmons took the floor and asked the moderator to intervene. “There’s a member of parliament here trying to scare me off the microphone.” Pertima answered again. President Telegen reacted angrily because they were not given the floor and Simmons and Bertima continued to chat through the speech of other deputies. At this time Simmons spoke again, at which point Telegen exploded: “Say good morning. It’s like a kindergarten class here. It’s easier to raise my four children than to lead this discussion.” “You have no more rights than any other deputy,” Telegin told Simmons.

Simmons says she will report to the House of Representatives about the intimidation she has been exposed to. Until then, you don’t want to repeat Pertima’s exact words. Otherwise everyone would judge whether it was bad enough. Words like ‘You’ll like it’ were words.

Pertima denies this. “Are you crazy? I once tried to kill my car when they smashed my car. This is intimidating.” Other lawmakers who attended the debate said they were unable to identify the frightening words he hurled at Simmons. Several witnesses indicate that Pertima was challenging the Bij1 leader by asking her questions while arguing from others why she was so easily offended.