Dutch PM Schoof, Donald Tusk to speak on Remembrance Day & Liberation Day

Prime Minister Dick Schoof will give a speech this year during the National Remembrance Day Commemoration on Dam Square on May 4. Presenter and journalist Philip Freriks will give the May 4 lecture in De Nieuwe Kerk prior to the speech. The Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, will give the May 5 lecture in Wageningen.

Philip Freriks is known for his work as a presenter of the NOS Journaal, the nation’s most popular news show. He worked in this position for 14 years. He is also known for other shows like De Slimste Mens, Lopend Vuur, and Het Groot Dictee der Nederlandse Taal. Freriks has written several books, including De Meridiaan van Parijs, Gare du Nord, Jantje, and Les Chats de Lili.

Donald Tusk is one of the founders of the Polish Centrist party Platforma Obywatelska, who he also became leader in 2003. He became the Prime Minister of Poland in 2007 and continued in this position until 2014. The seven-year term made him the longest-serving Prime Minister in Poland’s democratic history. He was the chairman of the European Council for five years after this before becoming Poland’s Prime Minister for a second time two years ago.

It is customary that the prime minister gives a speech every five years during the Remembrance Day Commemoration. King Willem-Alexander did this in 2020 because that was the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

The last prime minister to give the speech was Mark Rutte in 2015. The Mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, spoke on Dam Square last year. Presenter Dieuwertje Blok gave the speech a year before this.

Gelderland is the host province for the national celebration of Liberation Day this year. The May 5 lecture will be added to the National Commemoration of the Capitulations of 1945 and the Liberation Parade that takes place every year on the May 5 Square in Wageningen. After the lecture, Prime Minister Schoof will light the Freedom Fire at the Liberation Festival in the city, after which the liberation festivals throughout the country can begin.

This year, it is the 80th commemoration of the war ending in the Netherlands. “A society can only function well in a country without war, where human rights are followed, and where there is no oppression. That is why, with these 80 years of freedom, we also celebrate that we live in a democracy. A country where everybody can think and decide on policies requires everybody’s responsibility,” said The National Committee for 4 and 5 May.