Finance Minister repeatedly facing violent threats on Twitter and Facebook

Dutch Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag has filed dozens of police reports over threats she has received on various platforms, including on social media site Twitter. Kaag, who is also a deputy prime minister, spoke about the problem on Thursday evening on the talk show Op1.

She mentioned one specific example where someone wrote, “Kuthoer, you will get a bullet in your head.” The slur, “kuthoer,” translates directly to English as “cunt whore.”

Kaag said, “So, I don’t read it anymore,” referring to messages on social media.

Kaag is receiving protection, "and not just a little," she said on set during the talk show. The politician, who was looking back on the past year during the conversation, did say that the threats are no reason for her to stop.

In addition to threats, she said she is also frequently called names such as “witch,” “terrorist” and “thief” on social media. “I am not going to attempt to explain the systematic character assassination is committed against me; they should explain that,” she said referring to those who write the messages. “I am a woman with experience, I am a leader of a political party, and I stand by our views.”

At the beginning of this year, demonstrator Max van den B. stood outside her home address with a lit tiki torch shouting conspiracy slogans. Prior to that, a 43-year-old man who made death threats against her had to appear in court at a hearing she attended.

Kaag explained on Thursday evening the impact it has had on her children, who for a time feared coming home in case something terrible would happen.

“But every child is different. One remains much more wary, and the other completely panics when I say I'm going to walk the dogs.”