Dutch gov't must pay attention to skeptical citizens, SCP says after Covid loss of trust

The Dutch government needs to pay more attention to the arguments of citizens who are skeptical of its policies, the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP) said after an investigation into Covid-skeptics. According to the SCP, these skeptics did not lose their trust in the government overnight, but due to several bad experiences in which they felt ignored.

About 20 percent of Netherlands residents were skeptical about the coronavirus or the policies around it, the SCP found. They had doubts about the effect of the vaccinations, the need for the coronavirus restrictions, or who was responsible for the policy, among other things.

The SCP found no differences between Covid-skeptics and the rest of the population regarding mental health, media use, or experiences with Covid-19. “It is a diverse group with divergent views, but above all, they have in common that they have a low level of trust in the government,” the SCP said.

And that distrust did not happen overnight. In-depth interviews showed that their Covid skepticism developed over an extended period, and interactions with the government and society reinforced it. “They had to deal with various negative experiences, like the deployment of the police during coronavirus demonstrations, the removal of posts on social media, the way they were portrayed in the media, and clashes in their social environment. These experiences confirmed for them the idea that there was no room to deviate from the norm.”

Based on the results of this study, the SCP urged the government not to exclude people with different views but to be “curious” about them. “Understand how people arrived at their views and the underlying concerns.”

According to the SCP, it is critical for democracy that skeptical people don’t completely lose their confidence in the government. “It is, therefore, important that the government does its best to improve the relationship with skeptical citizens and the underlying confidence in the democratic process,” The SCP said.

This is particularly important when it comes to issues in which people doubt the government’s information and intentions behind its decisions, the SCP said. It referred expressly to climate change and the nitrogen crisis.

In January, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he was unsure how to address large groups of people who believe in conspiracy theories. "The only thing you can do as a government is to communicate as clearly as possible." But in a free society, he said, it is someone's own choice to "believe in it or not."