“Never”:
new PM Dick Schoof says ministers are not racist
July 4, 2024
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/07/never-new-pm-dick-schoof-says-ministers-are-not-racist/
New Dutch
prime minister Dick Schoof denied that he had a racist cabinet and told PVV
leader Geert Wilders that he would choose his own words in an uncomfortable
first parliamentary debate.
Opposition
MPs repeatedly asked political newcomer Schoof to respond to claims of racism
by cabinet ministers.
Wilders, who
did not win the new coalition’s confidence to serve as prime minister himself,
criticised Schoof’s reaction and said he would have been “angry” and immovable.
In the first
signs of tension between the experimental non-partisan prime minister and the
head of the largest parliamentary party, Schoof responded: “There aren’t any
racists in this cabinet, as I have already said. But I choose my own words…I am
a prime minister for everyone in the Netherlands and I do not exclude anyone.”
Wilders
immediately tweeted that he thought Schoof’s response was “weak”. But when
challenged by D66 leader Rob Jetten on a “train crash” of a debate, Schoof
stressed that he was in charge of the coalition agreement.
Jetten also
raised the issue of a recent tweet by asylum minister Marjolein Faber, from the
PVV, describing MP Esmah Lahlah as a “Labour headscarf”. He asked Schoof to
look her in the eye and confirm he saw her as a person.
In an
emotional response, Lahlah added: “For the past two days, it has been about
headscarves. As a woman with a headscarf in this parliament, I say: I wear a
headscarf and this is a free choice…and for all the girls who wear a headscarf
and are affected….it’s your choice and you can achieve anything you want.”
Omvolking
PVV
ministers sparked controversy before the new government even started for their
use of far-right terminology. Faber last week distanced herself from her use of
the term “omvolking”, once associated with the Nazis and now used by conspiracy
theorists to refer to white elites supposedly importing immigrants to change
the white majority.
Trade
minister Reinette Klever has also referred to this “Great Replacement” theory,
as has the speaker of the house, Martin Bosma, when he was still a PVV
parliamentarian.
Schoof said:
“I know for sure that all members of the cabinet are not racist, don’t talk
about omvolking, and that that this will never be the line of my cabinet.”
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