Schoof
gives muted support for Halsema after attack by Wilders
October 8,
2024
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/10/schoof-gives-muted-support-for-halsema-after-attack-by-wilders/
Prime
minister Dick Schoof has insisted that his cabinet supports Amsterdam’s mayor
Femke Halsema after she was attacked on social media by Geert Wilders in the
wake of Monday’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the capital.
But Schoof
declined to criticise Wilders directly for suggesting Halsema should be removed
from the country for allowing the protests to go ahead.
“Get that
scum out of the country. And Halsema can go with them,” Wilders posted on X,
better known as Twitter, after 320 people were arrested on Monday evening.
Halsema
ordered police to end the demonstration after fireworks were let off and some
protestors tried to make their way to Dam Square, where the official
commemoration of the victims of last year’s attacks by Hamas was taking place.
Schoof would
not respond directly to Wilders’s tweet when approached by RTL Nieuws on
Tuesday and couched his support for Halsema in a general statement of praise
for the country’s mayors.
“I never
react to tweets from anyone, but in a general sense I’d like to say that I and
the cabinet support every mayor in the Netherlands,” the prime minister said.
“They make
difficult decisions every day and that support counts for Halsema as well.”
Sharon
Dijksma, the Labour (PvdA) mayor of Utrecht and chair of the local government
association VNG, called Wilders’ tweet “irresponsible” and called on ministers
to distance themselves from his remarks.
“This
undermines respect for mayors and is out of all proportion,” Dijksma wrote on
Instagram. “The cabinet must distance itself from this statement.”
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