VVD MP Van der Brug admits to shouting vulgarities at NSC staffers in Gaza debate
VVD parliamentarian Eric van der Burg has acknowledged that he behaved poorly during Friday’s debate on the departure of the NSC Cabinet members and the situation in Gaza. He insulted NSC staff members and PvdD leader Esther Ouwehand, accusing the former of having tuberculosis and calling the latter a “bitch,” NU.nl reports.
Van der Burg called the NSC staff members "teringlijers,” which roughly translates to “fuckers” in English. But it is part of the vulgar Dutch tradition of cursing people with diseases. More literally, “teringlijers” translates to “tuberculosis sufferers” or “repulsive tubercular people.”
According to NU.nl, NSC leader Nicolien van Vroonhoven confronted Van der Burg, making it clear that he could not treat parliamentary staff in that way. The VVD MP said he would address the matter and contacted Van Vroonhoven on Thursday evening.
Van der Burg told the newspaper that he had indeed shouted this insult “in the direction of the NSC” in parliament. He said he was feeling “incredibly bad” that day. “Colleagues are saying the worst things. Like saying I’m condoning genocide and that I have blood on my hands. I’m also getting a lot of photos of dead children. All that really affects you.”
He added that this was no excuse for insulting the NSC members. “I shouldn’t have said it. It was very stupid.”
An NSC spokesperson told ANP that Van der Burg had indeed reached out to Van Vroonhoven to discuss the matter and that the two will meet sometime next week. The spokesperson added that he has not apologized.
In the same debate, Van der Burg also insulted PvdD leader Esther Ouwehand, calling her a “bitch” as he walked away after a discussion.
“You’re supposed to behave properly, and I didn’t do that with her last Friday during an altercation,” Van der Burgh admitted to RTL Nieuws on Wednesday. “I was simply an idiot.”
Van der Burg is a prominent parliamentarian for the VVD and is in fifth place on the party’s candidate list for the upcoming election. He previously criticized other parliamentarians for how they treated each other. For example, after GroenLinks-PvdA leader Frans Timmermans called then-NSC MP Diederik Boomsma a “hypocrite,” Van der Burg wrote on X: “We can disagree, even strongly, but we’re not going to call each other hypocrites in our parliament.”
