Dissatisfaction among civil servants over racist remark by PVV State Secretary continues

Many civil servants of State Secretary Chris Jansen (public transport and environment) have difficulty with the PVV member's actions. They are not reassured that they will not be insulted again after Jansen's expression of support for insulting statements by Geert Wilders. They write this to the State Secretary. Several civil servants are staying home because they can no longer work with Jansen, insiders confirm after reporting by NRC.

Confidence in Jansen in the ministry has been shaken since he declared that he still stands behind Geert Wilders' statements about 'fewer Moroccans' in 2014 in which he and a crowd shouted that they wanted fewer Moroccans in the country, a speech which led to a hate speech conviction. The state secretary also wrote a tweet he published eight years ago in which he stated that fewer Moroccan people in the Netherlands would lead to a reduction in nuisance and crime. He made that statement in “a different context” and still stands by it, he said during a hearing in June in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament.

The PVV chairman has been condemned for this. Prime Minister Dick Schoof called on Jansen to retract his statement. But many of Jansen's employees no longer feel safe, 175 of them wrote to their boss.

In his response to the open letter, Jansen reiterated that he distances himself from the offending statement. “I think it's important that everyone at IenW can be themselves and that there is a safe and inclusive working environment for everyone,” he assures. He is also committed to this himself, for example during lunch conversations with employees.

The scandal kept flaring up because Jansen later denied, for example in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, that he had insulted civil servants with his comments. This had given employees a “difficult feeling," according to the message to Jansen circulating in the ministry.

The Secretary of State denied this again on Friday when answering questions from the House of Representatives. Later in the debate, he already acknowledged that he had indeed received signals about damaged trust, he emphasized. Jansen said at the time that he “understood that there were people who wanted to talk to me about it” and that his door was “always open” to them.