Prime Minister takes a seat aboard Justice Sec.-turned-transit driver's bus

By Anna Paganini on January 2, 2018 - 15:40
Fred Teeven
State Secretary Fred Teeven. (Fred Teeven)

The former Number 2 at the Justice Ministry, who is now employed as a Connexxion bus driver, Fred Teeven received an extraordinary passenger Tuesday morning. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte took a ride on Teeven's bus travelling between Hoofddorp and Schiphol.

A picture that went viral of the two politicians was taken by Chris Soellaart, a photographer also traveling on the bus. He managed to get the two ex-colleagues to pose for him.

In a recent interview, Teeven said he is no longer bitter about leaving Rutte's second cabinet prematurely because of a scandal known as the "Teeven Deal". The affair concerned money seized from a drug trafficking suspect, Cees H., which was substantially returned to him. The agreement also led H. to share information about a kidnapping plot that targeted Teeven.

Teeven and Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten left their positions in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Rutte on March 10, 2015. Opstelten had misinformed parliament over the value of the Teeven Deal, and Teeven said he did not recall the exact amounts involved, leading to their departures when paperwork about decades-old deal resurfaced.
 
The former politician then decided to get closer to one of his childhood dreams, becoming an international truck driver, and chose to apply for a part-time bus driving job with Connexxion on a route from his hometown of Haarlem and the Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA Station. He is also working on a cybersecurity consulting business.

 

 

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