Controversy continues to dog efforts to complete a new right-wing cabinet for the Netherlands, with questions now being asked about a second ministerial choice.
On Friday morning VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz spoke out about the PVV’s nomination of Marjolien Faber for key role of asylum and immigration minister, saying she too is “not an uncontroversial candidate”.
PVV leader Geert Wilders withdrew Gidi Markuszower’s candidacy on Thursday evening after it emerged he had failed the official screening. He then put forward Marjolien Faber, until the election the party’s leader in the senate, for the role.
Yesilgöz, who is still a minister in the outgoing coalition, was asked ahead of the Friday cabinet meeting why she had supported Israel-born Markuszower, who was said by the Dutch secret service several years ago to be a security risk.
Yesilgöz said she had been told about Faber on Thursday evening and expressed her concerns to both Wilders and negotiator Richard van Zwol on Friday. In particular, she referred to statements Faber had made earlier and her “attitude and tone”, and questioned if this was in line with the ministerial job.
Yesilgöz did not say what comments were of particular concern. Faber is known as a hardliner on asylum, refused to concede she was wrong about the ethnicity of a stabbing suspect, and has called her colleagues in provincial government “fake”.
Frans Timmermans, leader of the GroenLinks-PvdA alliance, said on social media that Wilders had made “blunder after blunder”.
“And time and time again, the silence from the VVD and NSC is deafening,” he said. “Embarrassed, or is this the new governance culture?”
