On Wednesday afternoon, the House debates for the last time in its old composition, which was voted down on 17 March. The MPs are – not for the first time – looking for the logic behind the cabinet’s corona policy. SP party leader Lilian Marijnissen lashes out at Mark Rutte. ‘I wonder what got into the prime minister when he said before the elections:’ I hope that we can all sit on a terrace again at Easter. ” She suspects the VVD leader of deliberate deception of the voter. Was the prime minister overcome with election fever? Because after the elections it suddenly turns out that nothing is possible at all ‘, Marijnissen observes.
Perspective
She is not the only one who accuses Rutte of opportunistic optimism. Think Member of Parliament Farid Azarkan: ‘The Prime Minister’s press conference yesterday could have been a lot shorter. He could just have said he was not going to carry out everything he promised before the election. ‘ Just before the elections, Rutte and Minister De Jonge (Public Health) offered the Dutch people the prospect of a soon end to the lockdown, including partial opening of the catering industry, shops and higher education. This while the contamination figures were already visibly going in the wrong direction.
Rutte and De Jonge provided their hopeful message with all kinds of reservations. Unfortunately, such nuances go in one ear, out the other, behavior experts know. The public only remembers the positive message, because that is what people want to hear. So creating expectations that are not fulfilled only creates disappointment and confusion.
Still, race-optimist De Jonge will do it again on Tuesday: he holds out the prospect that colleges and universities will provide physical education one day a week from 26 April. Under two conditions: that the number of infections permits relaxation and that students and teachers can be tested preventively. These reservations are being snowed under in the reporting and are therefore probably not psychologically ‘landed’ with the target group.
The House of Representatives can no longer follow it either. Take curfew. This will be shifted from nine to ten in the evening. FvD Member of Parliament Wybren van Haga accuses the prime minister of being inconsistent. “You yourself said before that a curfew after nine in the evening is pointless, because the measure would have too little effect.” Rutte answers that from Sunday – after the start of summer time – it stays light longer in the evening. The police and the mayors have therefore asked the cabinet to postpone the starting time of the curfew until after dusk, because otherwise the measure would not be enforceable. Van Haga: ‘I find that a strange foundation. It’s an occasional argument. ‘
Lobby
Not for the first time, some lobby determines the corona policy, instead of the advice of Jaap van Dissel and other virus experts. This also happened when the schools were first closed and then reopened. And with the decision to introduce a mandatory mask in public buildings. Rutte indeed told the House of Representatives in January that a curfew after nine o’clock is not useful. That was the opinion of Van Dissel. But now that the police and mayors are reluctant to sweep full parks and beaches on beautiful spring evenings, the cabinet is suddenly making a different decision.
Behavioral experts grumble against the Wednesday U.S that such illogical reasoning undermine public support. People take Rutte’s calls to comply with the rules less seriously, because they see that the policy is inconsistent.
During the parliamentary debate, RIVM reports that the number of infections is again above 7,500, which is in line with a ‘strongly increasing trend’.
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