Column | They have almost become members of the House of Representatives, and now they only need the “dummies” and a phone call

On Wednesday 22 November, Harry Beavers was not re-elected as a VVD Member of Parliament. Just two days later, he received an email from Facilities Management: He had one week to vacate his office. He now calls it “cold turkey.” “Suddenly you're out.” This was much more difficult than previously thought. He felt happy in The Hague, felt that his work was not finished, and he missed his colleagues. And also, he says it more honestly than any other former MP, about the standing you have as a Member of Parliament. In December, like every year, he signed up to attend a New Year's reception in Groningen, where politicians, administrators and businessmen from the three northern provinces gather. Harry Beavers lives in Leeuwarden. But when he had to explain what he'd done, he realized: he wasn't supposed to be wandering around there anymore.

Last Wednesday evening, when the PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB factions sat together to read the coalition agreement, VVD member Jacqueline van den Heel could be seen on almost every news broadcast. She was also not re-elected as an MP in November, but was then able to replace a pregnant colleague. But this too was different. The 16 replacement weeks were deducted from the time during which she would have been entitled to redundancy pay, and like all other former MPs, she was suddenly unable to pass through the entrance gates to the House of Representatives at the beginning of May: former MPs' passes remain valid for six months. Months, but facilities management got it wrong by a month.

It seems certain that two or three VVD MPs will become ministers or state secretaries in the new government and then there will be room for Jacqueline van den Hel and Harry Bevers. So they were also allowed to read the agreement on Wednesday. Van den Heel, from Zeeland, only arrived at Johan de Witthuis after a film crew discovered the presence of VVD there. “I looked like a happy egg,” she said the next morning.

At the end of the formation, she checked her phone for X every time to see if it would work. Harry Beavers too. He laughs. “He was almost sick.” He says he feels like a member of the waiting room.

Diederik Boomsma, who had just missed entering the NSC's lower house, became a staff member of the faction, and as Peter Umtzigt's closest advisor, he never had to look at X to see how things were going. It is likely that in the National Security Council there will also be factional members who will become ministers and later will become members of Parliament. But he also only dared to believe it when he heard Geert Wilders say on Tuesday night that things couldn't get any worse. “Great, I thought. About time.”

Harry Beavers says the second round of waiting begins now. On the “puppets” in the Cabinet. “Then in a phone call.”

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