Outrage about Johan Derksen’s comments about Frisian MP: ‘Edge of the law’

De Hoop, born in Ethiopia, was adopted by a Frisian couple when he was eight months old. He grew up in Wommels (barely 2000 inhabitants) and speaks fluent Frisian. In an interview with SBS yesterday, he spoke out in favor of the importance of preserving the Frisian language.

Friesland will receive 18 million euros in the coming years to promote the use of the Frisian language. “People who are trained bilingually can even speak Dutch better. It also helps with the use of the Dutch language. We can do so many wonderful things with it,” De Hoop said in the interview.

Derksen responded:

“Isn’t he talking like that? Someone who was born in Friesland has the right to talk about it like that.”

Presenter Wilfred Genee then objects: “But he was adopted, by Frisian parents.”

Derksen again: “Yes, but he’s not Frisian, is he? Come on.”

Genee laughs: “He speaks it really well. He speaks it really well.”

Derksen: “I’m not Surinamese, am I?”

Member of Parliament De Hoop (GroenLinks-PvdA) said in a short response that he ‘doesn’t have much time for nonsense’. “Don’t let anyone tell you who you are or where you belong. Never, by anyone,” he responds to X.

“I grew up in Friesland, as a child of two Frisian parents, I grew up playing handball and skating and the less fun things that come with life on the farm. I entered politics because I want to give other young people opportunities. Actually I don’t have much time or interest in this nonsense.”

Johan Derksen responds against the AD that the incident ‘has nothing to do with racism’. “No matter what you say nowadays, there is always racism, or anti-Semitism or homophobia. You still have one on Dutch TV who says what he thinks about it and then he is an idiot. What are people concerned about? But I am always very easy about it: I am not interested in anything and I accept all consequences.”

Borderline case

Criminal lawyer Anis Boumanjal has also seen the images and calls what Derksen does ‘downright insulting’, he tells RTL News. “And it is a borderline case, but I think you can also include this in the criminal law framework. It is an insult, and the discriminatory character makes it aggravating. What is certain is that this is morally reprehensible in any case.”

Boumanjal believes that criminal law should intervene more often when ‘it concerns these kinds of things’. “And so in this case too, the criminal side is really not excluded. But I can imagine that you, like De Hoop, think: I’ll leave it alone. Reporting it and getting angry about it is often a punishment for yourself for someone else’s misdeeds. “This is not extreme excess, but again: it is downright an insult by a pedantic man who wants to shout himself out of insecurity again.”

His colleague Geert-Jan Knoops thinks that any prosecution of Derksen has little chance of success. “It may not be appropriate, but in my opinion, it should not be classified as criminal discrimination or insult.”

View De Hoop’s response to X here:

Shameful, says Mirka Antolovic the Frisian department Derksen’s statements from reporting center Discriminatie.nl. Since January 1, Discriminatie.nl has been the national point for reporting racism or discrimination. “It is not the first time that Derksen has spoken on the edge of the law, or beyond it. I wonder whether he would also have spoken the same way about a white person with blue eyes, who had been adopted from Ukraine, for example. You can There is no denying that this has to do with implicit prejudices or racism.”

“It is not recorded anywhere if you are Frisian,” says Antolovic. “Frisians are very much tied to their language. The Frisian identity is expressed through the Frisian language. De Hoop talks Frisian, he thinks Frisian. That is Frisian. We are already receiving reports about this statement.”

It is unclear whether De Hoop will press charges. It doesn’t seem like he plans to do that yet.

Everyday racism

Colleagues from De Hoop support him. “Shameless,” says outgoing Minister De Jonge (Home Affairs) about the incident. “The kind of everyday racism that too many people face every day.”

“Away with the everyday racism of Today Inside,” responds former PvdA leader Lodewijk Asscher. “Stop this racism and just treat others with respect,” says current PvdA leader Frans Timmermans.

The National Coordinator against Discrimination and Racism does not wish to respond substantively. “By paying attention to this, you only give it a bigger stage.”

Discrimination as a revenue model

Coordinator Rabin Baldewsingh calls Derksen so insignificant that he does not think he is worth responding. He also indicates that these types of programs normalize racism and discrimination ‘and this program shines in that’. According to him, that is also the revenue model. “The Netherlands deserves to be concerned about issues that do deserve attention.”

RTL Nieuws has asked Derksen’s employer Talpa for a response, but it has not been received to date.