Far-right Senator says “awkward’ over her racially-charged tweet; Won’t remove post
PVV senator Marjolein Faber responded to her tweet in which she unjustly said that the media was withholding the "North African appearance" of the perpetrator in a Groningen stabbing two weeks ago. She called it "awkward", but still hasn't removed the tweet from Twitter.
"Since I never reveal my source, I should have taken this into account before posting this tweet. With this in mind, I should not have sent the tweet. Was awkward", she said on Twitter on Monday night.
The tweet in question was about a stabbing incident at a terrace on Grote Markt in Groningen on September 25th. A man randomly stabbed a student, his friend and a young woman. They sustained minor injuries. The perpetrator - described as a 67-year-old "disturbed" man from Groningen by the police - was arrested shortly after the incident.
A day after the stabbing, Faber tweeted: "Man stabs 3 people on the cozy terrace of De Drie Gezusters in Groningen. What you are not allowed to know from the media: the disturbed man has a North African appearance (according to a reliable source) and apparently hates beer." Her tweet included a link to a Dagblad van het Noorden report on the incident.
This claim was quickly refuted by the two young men injured in the stabbing, who described the perpetrator as a man with pale skin and gray hair. Faber was accused of fear mongering, hate speech and distributing misinformation on social media.
Due to the commotion that arose after Faber's tweet, the Public Prosecution Service also decided to refute her claim. "The incorrect image of the PVV senator has adequately been corrected by witnesses on social media", the Prosecutor said on Monday, AD reports.
Faber called the tweet "awkward" after the Public Prosecutor's statement. Exactly what she meant by "never reveal my source" is not clear. She told newspaper AD last week that her source was the young woman injured in the stabbing. "She is known to me and I heard it through her. Not directly, by the way, but through a relative of her's", the PVV Senator said, according to the newspaper. "I absolutely believe that my information is correct. Otherwise I would never have put it on Twitter, I have to know for sure."