Van Strien (PVV) quits, Wilders has a new scout in mind

Scout Gom van Strien resigns from his duties. He said this in a short statement. The reason was an article from NRC this weekend in which Van Strien was linked to fraud at his former employer.

“This weekend, articles appeared in the media about work in my past, in which my integrity is questioned,” Van Strien writes. “In my view, both the unrest that has arisen about this and the preparation of a response to it do not relate to my current work as a scout.”

Van Strien has informed PVV leader Wilders and Chamber President Bergkamp that he will stop as a scout “immediately”. The PVV senator would hold his first talks today. Wilders says that Van Strien and he “unfortunately had to come to the conclusion that it was better to stop”.

Bergkamp said in a statement that it is now important “that a new scout is quickly appointed who can start working immediately”. She will discuss this with the party leaders in the House of Representatives as soon as Wilders has put forward a new candidate scout.

Wilders has a successor in mind, he hopes to nominate him tomorrow. He doesn’t want to say who it is yet. The PVV party leader first asks other faction leaders whether there is sufficient support for the new scout. “In any case, it will be someone with more distance from politics.”

Watch Geert Wilders’ response below:

When asked whether he is afraid that this will damage confidence in politics and the process, he says that things “didn’t go well” but that things can change quickly after this “false start”. He also calls on the parties VVD, BBB and NSC to quickly sit down at the table. He points to studies that indicate that the supporters of these parties are in favor of a “center-right” cabinet.

Yesterday Van Strien said he would initially just start working as a scout. He said the accusations against him are unfounded and that he “strongly distances himself” from them.

When asked, a number of political parties told NOS yesterday that they had no objection to Van Strien as a scout.

The fraud case in question concerns a subsidiary of Utrecht University and the UMC Utrecht hospital, Utrecht Holdings. That company did so in March declaration of “irregularities involving three (former) employees”.

According to NRC, which has documents in its possession, it appears that this includes Van Strien, who was a director of Utrecht Holdings until 2009. That company sets up other companies to commercialize the university’s discoveries.

According to the newspaper, a report from research agency Deloitte states that Van Strien and his successor transferred shares of companies that emerged from the university or the UMC into the hands of an external company. Their wives each owned 32 percent of the shares in that company.

Following Deloitte’s report, Utrecht Holdings reported fraud and bribery “in connection with share transactions”. Van Strien told the newspaper that he asked for clarification when he heard about the report, but received no answer. “A letter did arrive from the university with a number of blatant inaccuracies.”