BBB leader Caroline van der Plas doesn't want to be Prime Minister

Caroline van der Plas of farmers’ party BBB won’t be Prime Minister if her party wins the parliamentary elections in November, she said in an interview with the Telegraaf. She hopes to nominate someone else for the premiership this week. She’s considering someone with “international experience,” she said.

“If he or she says ‘yes,’ the choice is easy for me: then I will not be Prime Minister,” Van der Plas said. If the intended candidate, who will be second on the list of BBB candidates, says no, Van der Plas will “reconsider” her choice.

The BBB leader would prefer to remain the party leader and lead the parliamentary faction. She told the newspaper that she had two main reasons for not wanting to be Prime Minister. “First of all, it is a huge attack on my private life. I just paid a working visit to Ameland, just on my own. Then I had time to speak with entrepreneurs, campsite owners. That will not be possible when you are Prime Minister. Then you will be dropped off by car and can talk to someone for two minutes.”

The second reason is that she is not eager to travel to other countries and meet with foreign government leaders. “With all due respect to those people - and my English is fine - but I don’t want to wear nice clothes and fly around the world. Then I have to wear heels when I can’t walk in heels at all. It all grabs me a bit by the throat, to be honest.”

Van der Plas also fears flying and says she is constantly afraid that her plane will crash. And she thinks she has been in parliament too short to be Prime Minister. “All in all, the pointer is pointing in that direction: that I’m not going to do it,” she said.