PVV fires entire Brussels staff

The PVV in Brussels has fired its nine staff members, saying that the new delegation wants an entirely clean sheet of staff, the Algemeen Dagblad reports. New PVV-leader in Brussels, Marcel de Graaff, says this is not unusual. "Just like at other parties, the co-workers are individual. They disappear together with their parliamentarian. With us, the abnormal situation was that all parliamentarians were also new." According to the AD, some veteran PVV politicians were hoping to be able to work in the Brussels faction, just for the very reason that the parliamentarians are new. As De Graaff puts it, "all those newbies don't, in a manner of speaking, even know where the toilet is." De Graaff has been criticized for the manner in which the situation has been handled, with these veterans hearing of the 're-organization' just a few days before the fact. The PVV-leader tells the AD that this is down to the last-minute failure of the faction formation. "Otherwise everyone would have heard earlier. I have been familiar with hiring and firing people for 25 years, nobody has to teach me that you do that carefully." "Employees are not disposable napkins", De Graaff says. "So the PVV has been fighting for employment protection for years. A matter of being civilized." According to De Graaff, more than 30 people have eagerly put their names in the hat for the newly opened positions. He says that the PVV is staying minimal, to be able to expand later this year, if the faction is realized.