Eroding civility in Parliament: MPs want leader to tackle threats, intimidation

A majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, wants the Kamer president to have more power to intervene if parliamentarians intimidate or threaten their colleagues in debates. Forum voor Democratie is against it. MP Gideon van Meijeren clashed with several other parties about this.

Parliamentarians should be able to say everything in the Kamer, said Van Meijeren. "Free parliamentary debate, this fundamental principle of democracy, is under serious pressure," the FvD member said in the debate about civility in and of the Tweede Kamer. According to the MP, less and less can be said in the Kamer since Vera Bergkamp took over the presidency. "The current Kamer president abuses her powers to silence MPs."

Both coalition parties and opposition parties criticized the FvD parliamentarian's view. The FvD is one of the parties the Kamer president regularly calls to order because it goes too far. For example, FvD MP Pepijn van Howelingen threatened D66 MP Sjoerd Sjoerdsma that he would one day be dragged before a tribunal. "Forum contributes to the spiral of violence, also here in parliament," said GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver. "We do not accept this kind of subversive activity."

Various parties criticized the absence of FvD in many debates, including a large part of this debate about manners. "Two minutes before his own contribution, Van Meijern walks into the room to start with his tirade. I am not going to listen to that," said SP MP Renske Leijten. Caroline van der Plas of the BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) also thought that "total madness."

D66 and ChristenUnie now have a parliamentary majority behind them for their proposal to adjust the Tweede Kamer's rules of procedure. Parliamentarians who intimidate or threaten fellow MPs should be deprived of the floor or even banned from the meeting. The Tweede Kamer president should be given this possibility. The rules of procedure should be amended on this point, the parties believe.

Kamer president Bergkamp is concerned about the hardening of the parliamentary debates and parliamentarians' expressions on social media and the repercussions for society. "Posts on social media put the relations on edge." She wants to know from the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) whether such social media statements by MPs or their followers lead to an actual increase in the number of threats against parliamentarians. She will let the Kamer know next week whether the NCTV can conduct such an investigation.