FvD MP’s tweet suggsests link between ministers and Nazis, angering Cabinet members, D66

Health Minister Ernst Kuipers and Social Affairs Minister Karien van Gennip are considering taking legal measures against Pepijn van Houwelingen because he posted a photoshopped image of them with a Nazi flag behind them on Twitter. The ministers said the actions of the MP from the far right political party were "shocking" and "a new low in the treatment of public administrators and politicians."

Kuipers (D66) and Van Gennip (CDA) published a photo online last week in which they hoisted a flag for the sustainability development goals of the United Nations on the building in which their ministries are housed. In his tweet, Van Houwelingen used that photo, alongside an image where the original flag was replaced with a Nazi flag. The tweet included the text, "The facade and the reality."

D66 party chair Jan Paternotte called the tweet "warped" and said Van Houwelingen violated the rules of conduct of the Tweede Kamer. He pointed out that parliamentary regulations state that a member may not do anything that seriously harms the authority or dignity of the Tweede Kamer. “This campaign does just that.”

Paternotte also said he believes that Van Houwelingen is endangering the safety of both ministers. He noted on Sunday night that the Nazi flag was used by the MP "just as the Jewish New Year is being celebrated." Paternotte said it was, "nothing less than a gross insult to the deep pain of the survivors of the Holocaust."

Van Houwelingen's action should not go unpunished, the D66 leader said. He will therefore submit a complaint to the Integrity Investigation Board of the Tweede Kamer. "We have to keep drawing the line, time and time again."

Van Houwelingen has since deleted the tweet. Instead, he posted a new photo in which the Nazi flag was replaced by a flag of the former Soviet Union. He also stated that he has "in no way" compared Kuipers with Nazism, but that the comparison concerned the flag with the UN development goals.

FVD leader Thierry Baudet already evoked anger during the most important debate of the year, the Tweede Kamer’s debate with the Cabinet over budget plans for the upcoming year. Baudet suggested that the University of Oxford college where Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag studied is a notorious spy school. The entire Cabinet then left the room.

When Baudet refused to stop ranting about the college, Tweede Kamer chair Vera Bergkamp cut him off. His refusal to take back his words prompted Bergkamp to forbid him from participating further in the debate.