As a local councilor, Grote Wassink answers the phone for Freedom Party ministers

Chancellor Rutger Groot Wassink (Reception) does not completely distance himself from the PVV government. He made this clear this afternoon during a city council meeting in Stopera.

He told CDA faction leader Roger Havelar that as a council member he would still answer the phone. He stressed that he indicated during the interview with Het Parol that he would have to “communicate with the Cabinet of Ministers from the right or the left.” In Parul's interview, he said that he would not answer the phone if Freedom Party Minister Faber called and that he wanted to leave the matter to the officials.

“I am the only administrative person responsible for this, and civil servants cannot play this role, so the result is that as a local councilor I will have to play an administrative role, so I will do that,” Grote Wassink said during the meeting.

Shortly afterwards, Grote Wassink said in an interview with AT5 that he considered it “quite possible” that he would answer the phone when Freedom Party Minister Marjolein Faber called.

Groot Wassink also informed Het Parul in the interview that he will step down from his position as Chairman of the Asylum Committee of the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) and from the position of VNG Director. “It is nothing more than that, it is a personal decision,” he said during the meeting this afternoon.