ANP
NOS News•
Prime Minister Rutte has carefully said ‘sorry’ for sometimes informing the House late during the corona crisis. In a debate about the investigation by the Dutch Safety Board into the approach to the corona crisis in the first six months, Rutte acknowledged that there had been times when “things could have been done differently.”
Among other things, SP Member of Parliament Hijink wanted to know from the Prime Minister whether, looking back on the crisis, he thought the nocturnal letters and the late sending of documents to the House was the appropriate way to inform the House.
Rutte acknowledged that there were “quite a lot of moments” when there was enough time. But according to the prime minister, it was also often the case that urgent measures had to be taken due to rapidly rising infections. That crisis mode, in which the cabinet always “came to a decision at the last minute” and the documents were sent to the House late, may have been a risk, Rutte said. “Even if the time was there. If so, then sorry.”
Conflicts in cabinet
According to SP Member of Parliament Hijink, the cabinet lingered in the crisis atmosphere for a long time and it sometimes seemed that there was “government by press conference”. After that, there was a bit of “dinner” by the ministers in the Chamber. According to Hijink, this has been going on for too long and the cabinet should have come out of crisis mode after about six weeks.
Rutte said in the debate that the corona measures led to escalating conflicts in the cabinet, especially at the end of 2020. This mainly concerned the effects of those measures on society. “But that was good,” said Prime Minister Rutte, who also indicated that all those discussions have been in the news.
