Economic Minister apologizes for negative autism remark

Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs and Climate apologized for calling a wrong approach to dealing with problems caused by gas extraction in in Groningen "autistic". Talking about the wrong approach on Friday, Wiebes said: "Decisiveness is good, but autism is not", RTL Nieuws reports.

Joep Tiernego, who is autistic himself, complained about the statement in an open letter. According to him, Wiebes "disqualifies about one percent of the Dutch population" with that statement. He feels that the Minister could have used a word like 'rigidity' instead, because that is what he meant.

Wiebes responded on Twitter. "You are absolutely right", he said. "I should have said it differently" He added that he will pay more attention to the language he uses.