NSC MP says coalition with far-right PVV causes "great discomfort"

Parliamentarian Rosanne Hertzberger says she feels "great discomfort" about her NSC party's collaboration with the far-right political party, PVV. She added that she is not the only one in her party who feels this way, but she defended the choice to enter into a new governing coalition with Geert Wilders' party.

But the "ugly sides of this collaboration" were also visible in the first week of the new Cabinet, according to Hertzberger's post on social media platform LinkedIn.

"We saw how candidate ministers, even when they become ministers, do not stop insulting minorities in this country. How the PVV, even when it has government responsibility, continues to incite, spread hatred, polarize and disrupt debate," said Hertzberger.

As a result, the content of policy is not being addressed, she continued. "We should not consider this normal," she stated. According to her, the risk of "the slippery slope, of habituation, of normalization" is lurking.

The parliamentarian therefore promises to continue to share her objections "loud and clear." She is one of 20 NSC party members sitting in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Parliament. Her party joined the 37 members from the PVV, 24 more from the VVD and 7 from the BBB to form the new Cabinet.

In the message, Hertzberger looked back on a recent meeting of party members in Pijnacker. She also said she named the "elephant in the Kamer" which was described above.

The choice of the NSC faction to enter into a cooperation with the radical right-wing PVV was very nerve wracking, the MP wrote. "And it was only possible thanks to the strict conditions we set for that cooperation, including a constitutional framework within which all politicians involved must operate."