Gijs Tuinman and Mona Keijzer (BBB).© Archive photo
Mona Keijzer (BBB) lashes out at State Secretary Eric van der Burg about the reception of Ukrainian refugees. Keijzer wonders whether the VVD State Secretary still has them sorted out. Keijzer would be better off asking that question to himself.
In an interview, Keijzer and BBB party member Gijs Tuinman (former military) raised serious questions about the reception of Ukrainians in the Netherlands, especially men between the ages of 25 and 45. In itself a valid question, but Keijzer and Tuinman do not discuss it or do they want to take over the conscription inspection from Ukraine? It is understandable that President Zelensky calls on capable men to come forward. Every soldier is one. The frame that Keijzer and Tuinman use is that the reception is at the expense of ‘the Dutch person’. However, this shelter is also part of the fight against Putin, whom Keijzer and Tuinman claim to support. Division over the reception of Ukrainians is exactly what Putin wants. According to Tuinman, the soldiers at the front are longing for relief. What the soldier awarded the Military Order of William forgets is that a war is fought on two fronts: on the battle front and on the home front, which must be stable. The Netherlands offers that home front.
Keijzer, who likes to show off her legal background, also criticizes the ‘free houses’ for Ukrainians. Nonsense. The refugees do not get houses but stay in simple reception locations for which they increasingly pay a contribution if they have a job. Many refugees find this only logical, as they recently said in a report. “I am far from done with Eric van der Burg. (…) Does he have them all listed?” Keijzer grumbled about the fact that the Ukrainians do not formally have to pay rent for this shelter. There is nothing wrong with Van der Burg’s ‘list’. If he were to charge rent, as Keijzer demands, the Ukrainians would be legally entitled to all kinds of rental rights and they could stay in the Netherlands longer, even when it will (hopefully) be really safe again. Is that what Mona Keijzer wants?
