Source: BELGIAN
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Resigning Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized on Monday for the too rapid relaxation that recently came into effect. “What we thought was possible, turned out to be wrong in practice. We made an error of judgment there, we are disappointed and we apologize for that.”
He also apologized for last Friday’s press conference. There was a lot of criticism, because Rutte and Health Minister Hugo de Jonge did not look at themselves critically enough. “That was not our best press conference.” According to Rutte, in the run-up to it, they were too busy thinking about the measures and he and De Jonge were therefore not well prepared.
In the Netherlands, among other things, the nightclubs had reappeared under the slogan “dancing with Janssen”. According to De Jonge, that was “an error of judgment”. People who received one shot of the Janssen vaccine, or a second shot of Pfizer or Moderna, could immediately afterwards receive a ticket for a nightclub, for example. But the vaccines take several weeks to provide optimal protection.
The Dutch government announced further tightening of the corona policy on Friday, partly due to the rapid advance of the delta variant of the virus. Then the tenor at Rutte and De Jonge was completely different. They shook off the criticism that they had let go of the reins too soon. De Jonghe stated on Friday that the choice to abandon most corona measures at the end of June was “logical and responsible” at that time.
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