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The PVV ministers are making a mess of it. They do not understand how The Hague works, make ill-considered decisions and commit mistakes all the time. Marjolein Faber takes the cake. For example, she, who wants to close the borders, hired a migrant worker as a political advisor, who, however, did not pass the screening of the security services. She also has no idea where her right hand is.
The alarming reports come from De Telegraaf, the right-wing morning newspaper that has a certain sympathy for the PVV. In a great article a list of astonishing blunders and mistakes is given:
Anyone who listens behind the scenes will hear that the PVV, which is in a cabinet for the first time, lacks political craftsmanship. There is little or no polling among MPs as to whether there is fertile ground for ministers’ plans. And that leads to accidents.
There is the example of PVV Minister Beljaarts of Economic Affairs who surprised everyone this week with his proposal to give PostNL an extra day to deliver letters. The House of Representatives reacted with bewilderment because the PVV member’s plan seemed to come straight from PostNL’s sleeve instead of serving the interests of the citizens. Even the farmers’ lobby party BBB was surprised that the postal company gained so much influence with a lobby.
It can be heard in the corridors that Beljaarts did not see that resistance coming at all, and he did not sound out in advance whether his proposal would land on fertile soil. Ultimately, he has to publicly swallow his plan, after almost all MPs turn against him during a debate.
Add to this the bungling of Minister Barry Madlener, who also listened to the aviation lobby at the expense of the citizens, then had to slam on the brakes with the PVV promise to reintroduce 130 km per hour on a large scale – that turns out not to be possible – and politics crashed with a limp attitude against the fatbike terror.
But Marjolein Faber, the former IT professional who was put by Wilders at the Ministry for Asylum, surprises everyone with a complete lack of knowledge of the matter. Almost every day she has to swallow statements and promises and correct incorrect statements because she doesn’t know what to do. Her evil and infantile plan to scare asylum seekers with warning signs also failed at the first hurdle. It appears that it is not even able to hire qualified staff, De Telegraaf notes:
Her political advisor, the one who normally maintains contacts with parliament, appears not to be welcome at the ministry at all. He has not yet passed the screening of the secret services, a condition for obtaining an access pass to the ministry and also being able to look at the documents. It is unclear why there is no green light. (…) The issue already arose during the general political reflections just after Budget Day. These largely revolved around the asylum file, but Faber’s advisor was absent. Moreover, he still lives in Belgium, where he worked before moving to The Hague. Inquiries by De Telegraaf to PVV minister Faber about the long absence of her ‘right hand’ yielded an incorrect explanation. According to Faber, the employee is ‘on holiday’, but that turns out to be incorrect. Confronted with this, Faber says: “Then he will probably be back. That was my information.”
Faber’s blunders continue to cost hardworking policymakers in The Hague a lot of time and energy, which appears to be wasted time and time again. “It’s as if a veil hangs over our work,” sighs an insider to De Telegraaf.
On Thursday, Faber, who makes one trip abroad after another, backed down in Luxembourg where she was going to convince other EU ministers of her plan for an opt-out for the Netherlands, a spearhead of the PVV. That failed miserably. She didn’t even manage to make it a topic of conversation, writes the AD.
The subject was hardly discussed in the meeting – Faber mentioned it. But upon arrival, several ministers spoke about it in response to questions from Dutch journalists. And there was no understanding whatsoever, not even among centre-right governments. “We cannot now start looking for special solutions for individual countries. We must continue to work together,” said the Swedish minister, for example.
Faber claimed afterwards that her first EU meeting had ‘not been too bad’. She was surprised that in the EU administrators have good personal relationships. Those manners had surprised her. “I was very well received by the people I spoke to personally.” Her childish hand soon turned out to be full, as can be seen from the report. European Commissioner Johansson had even complimented her on the border control at Schiphol. “We can be proud of that,” Faber said.
While the ink of De Telegraaf is still proverbially drying, new painful mistakes are already appearing. For example, under Fleur Agema, who was appointed Minister of Health on behalf of the PVV, Heerlen will lose an important part of the local hospital. She returned empty-handed from the Deep South on Thursday, writes Trouw.
The House of Representatives had sent the minister to Heerlen. She must be more combative, Agema was recently told, and come up with creative ideas to offer the hospital a helping hand. (…) Her party PVV has for years raised the expectation that keeping Heerlen completely open is possible. But since she took office as minister, Agema says that a minister’s options are simply limited. In the Dutch health care system with market forces, hospitals decide for themselves which care they offer. “I’m not going to talk about it.”
The fact that the ministers are making a mess of it is further reinforced by the fact that many of the cabinet’s plans are based on air cycling. RTL News reveals this.
The government’s plans for agriculture and migration conflict with European legislation and agreements. This is evident from an internal document of the House of Representatives, in the hands of the political editors of RTL News. The Netherlands’ position not to expand the EU and to pay less also gives civil servants little chance. “Half of the coalition agreement can already be thrown in the trash bin,” according to D66 MP Jan Paternotte.
Wilders, with his always big mouth, likes to say that he wants to fire people. He could start in his own circle.
