Twitter account for Wilders' cats causes media commotion

On Saturday PVV leader Geert Wilders created a Twitter account for his cats. Whether or not this was a news worthy event caused quite a stir in Dutch Media and on social media.

Newspaper AD, like a few other newspapers, decided to write something about it and post it on the newspaper's site. Prominent VVD member and former parliament president Frans Weisglas directed a a tweet to AD editor Hans Nijenhuis, asking whether he could explain the relevance of the story. "Dear Hans Nijenhuis, can you explain the relevance of this story in your serious newspaper?" he tweeted.

Nijenhuis responded that he couldn't explain. "Only just saw it, was in a movie. We are removing it." he wrote on twitter.

That led to a stream of outraged comments on social media. Nijenhuis received lots of criticism on Twitter and Facebook. Commentors wanted to know whether not only Wilders himself, but also his cats are being excluded. Another asked whether VVD not only governs the country, but also the newspaper? And is the AD hitched to the VVD trolley, someone else wanted to know.

In response Nijenuis posted a statement on Facebook in which he explains that he did not see the relevance in reporting that the PVV leader created a Twitter account for his cats. He said that Wilders' cats simply don't fit with his newspaper's mission statement. "We aren't excluding Wilders cats, but then they must have something to report." he said. On twitter he added: "Making a mistake is not bad, but persisting in it is. So we removed the story."

Wilders' cats are called Snoetje and Pluisje. Their Twitter account can be found at @Wilderspoezen. They already have over 6 thousand followers.