Daughters Dutch top politician hope that their mom quits

[pieter]

NOS News•
today, 6:41 pm

Daughters of Dutch Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag hope that their mother will do something else

Two adult daughters of Deputy Prime Minister Sigrid Kaag hope that their mother will soon do something else outside of Dutch politics. In a College Tour (Dutch TV) broadcast on Sunday, they say they are very concerned about their mother's safety.

"I'm worried that my mother will end up like Els Borst," says daughter Janna Kaag in a previously recorded interview that Kaag gets to see. Former minister Els Borst was murdered by a psychiatric patient who was angry about her euthanasia policy.

D66 leader Kaag has been the target of many threats for years. Last year, a man with a burning torch stood in front of her house. "It only has to go wrong once," says daughter Janna Kaag. "The country doesn't deserve her. I actually want her to find another job." Her sister Inas Kaag joins in.


Deputy prime minister, Liberal D66 party leader and Dutch minister of Finance Sigrid Kaag is emotional when she sees her daugthers speak in the Dutch tv program College Tour, in which they say that they worry that their mother might end like former D66 minister, party leader and politician, Elst Borst, whom was assassinated.




Sigrid Kaag together with her oldest daughter Janna Al Qaq


Sigrid Kaag together with her youngest daughter Inas Al Qaq

Sigrid Agnes Maria Kaag (born 2 November 1961) is a Dutch diplomat and politician, serving as Minister of Finance and First Deputy Prime Minister in the Fourth Rutte cabinet. She previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 25 May 2021 until 17 September 2021 and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation from 26 October 2017 until 10 August 2021 in the Third Rutte cabinet.

On 21 June 2020, Kaag announced her candidacy for lijsttrekkerschap (lead candidate ) of the Democrats 66 party for the 2021 Dutch general election, with the ambition of becoming the Netherlands' first female Prime Minister. Kajsa Ollongren and Rob Jetten were also speculated to stand as candidates, but both refrained from doing so. The only opponent was therefore the unknown member Ton Visser, which resulted in Kaag winning the election with 95.7 percent of the votes. She was elected as Party Leader on 4 September 2020, making her the second female party leader of D66 after Els Borst in 1998.

No decision on future yet

Kaag reacts visibly emotionally to her daughters' call in the broadcast. "We don't talk about it often enough. They are concerned and I think their concerns are real."

She has not yet decided whether she wants to continue after this cabinet period. She doesn't want to tie the knot for some time. The advice of her daughters counts.

"My daughters say: it's been great, mom. That's also an important message. I always listen to my daughters," she says.

Before Kaag became Minister of Foreign Trade on behalf of D66 in 2017, she held positions abroad as a diplomat for many years. Her daughters also grew up abroad.

The number of threats against cabinet members and members of parliament is increasing. Last year, more than 1100 reports were received by the police. Most were aimed at PVV leader Geert Wilders, the most heavily protected politician in the Netherlands.

Personal life

Kaag is married and has four children. Her husband, Anis al-Qaq, is a dentist and a Palestinian national from Jerusalem who served as a deputy minister under Yasser Arafat in the 1990s and as the Palestinian representative to Switzerland. Kaag is a noted polyglot and speaks six languages: Dutch, English, French, Spanish, German and Arabic. She is a practicing Catholic. She was the first Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General.


The Young Sigrid Kaag

[pieter]

Els Borst



Else "Els" Borst-Eilers (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɛlsə ˈʔɛls ˈbɔrst ˈɛilərs]; 22 March 1932 – 8 February 2014) was a Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 (D66) party and physician. She was granted the honorary title of Minister of State on 21 December 2012.

Borst worked as a medical researcher at the Academic Medical Center from 1958 until 1962 and as a physician from 1962 until 1976. Borst also worked as director of the blood bank at the University Medical Center Utrecht from 1969 until 1976. She served as the University Medical Center Utrecht hospital administrator from 1976 until 1985. Borst was selected as Vice Chairwoman of the Health Council, serving from 1 January 1986 until 22 August 1994. Borst also served as a professor of medical ethics at the University of Amsterdam from 1 July 1992 until 22 August 1994. After the election of 1994 Borst was appointed as Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport in the Cabinet Kok I, taking office on 3 August 1998. After the Leader of the Democrats 66 Hans van Mierlo announced he was stepping down five months before the election of 1998, he endorsed Borst as his successor. After Van Mierlo stood down on 15 February 1998, Borst was chosen to succeed him and became the Leader of the Democrats 66 and the Lijsttrekker (top candidate) of the Democrats 66 for the election of 1998. The Democrats 66 suffered a small big loss, losing 10 seats and now had 14 seats in the House of Representatives. Borst was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives and became the Parliamentary leader of the Democrats 66 in the House of Representatives on 19 May 1998. Borst stepped down as Leader of the Democrats 66 and Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives in favor of Thom de Graaf on 30 May 1998. The following cabinet formation resulted in a continuing coalition agreement between the Labour Party (PvdA) and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) to form a Cabinet Kok II with Borst continuing as Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport and also becoming Deputy Prime Minister, taking office on 3 August 1998. In 2001 Borst announced her retirement from national politics and that she would not stand for the election of 2002.

Following her retirement Borst occupied numerous seats as a nonprofit director for supervisory boards for non-governmental organizations (Dutch Cancer Society, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Helen Dowling Institute, Institute for Health Services Research, National Committee for 4 and 5 May and the Brain Foundation) and as an advocate for cancer research. Borst continued to comment on political affairs as a stateswoman until her death on 8 February 2014 when she was murdered by a mentally unstable man in her home.

Death



Borst was found dead on the evening of 10 February 2014 in the garage at her home in Bilthoven by two close friends. The eighty-one-year-old former politician was reported to be in good health after recovering from breast cancer a few years before. Dutch police concluded that Borst died on 8 February, just hours after attending a party congress of the Democrats 66 in Amsterdam, where she was reported to be visibly active and upbeat and left the party congress on her own and walked to the Amsterdam Centraal railway station nearby.

On 1 September 2015 the Public Prosecution Service released a statement that Borst died from forty-one stab wounds to her head, neck and hands. On 26 January 2015 police announced that a man with a criminal record had been arrested based on a DNA match; this man was arrested two weeks earlier on suspicion of involvement in the murder of his sister. Early in 2016 he confessed to the murder of his sister (almost a year after the murder of Borst). He said he killed his sister because they had different opinions on abortion and euthanasia. In February 2016 he confessed to having killed Borst because divine inspiration told him to do so, holding her responsible for the Dutch policy on euthanasia.[14] Later he stated he had no intention to kill Mrs Borst, but wanted to ask her the address of former prime minister Wim Kok. When she refused to give the address, he remembered Borst had been responsible for the policy on euthanasia. On 13 April 2016 Van U. was convicted of the two murders and sentenced to TBS (Involuntary commitment) on the grounds of a diagnosis of chronic paranoid psychosis in the context of schizophrenia.

On 16 March 2017 the Court of Appeal of The Hague declared Van U. only partially unaccountable for the murders and sentenced him to eight years in prison and TBS.

[pieter]

The Els Borst Network

Inspired by Els Borst

“Politics is too important to be left to men alone,” said Els Borst. Shortly after the death of the beloved D66 politician, D66 launched the Els Borst Network. D66 considers it important that women create and seize opportunities from their own strength and wanted to support them in this with the network. The Els Borst Network is intended to facilitate women to develop themselves further and to successfully find their way in politics and within D66.
Connection to other networks

There are many different women's networks and initiatives in the Netherlands. These networks and initiatives have common goals aimed at women's emancipation, more women in politics and administration, economic independence and, for example, financial independence. As the Els Borst Network, we would like to strengthen each other, connect, share knowledge and learn from each other. We like to work together and we are always looking at where we can organize initiatives together or inform or match each other.

Network day




Er zijn veel verschillende vrouwennetwerken en initiatieven in Nederland. Deze netwerken en initiatieven hebben gemeenschappelijke doelen gericht op vrouwenemancipatie, meer vrouwen in de politiek en besturen, economische zelfstandigheid en bijvoorbeeld financiële onafhankelijkheid. Als Els Borst Netwerk willen we graag elkaar versterken, verbinden, kennisdelen en van elkaar leren. Graag treken we samen op en kijken we steeds waar we initiatieven samen kunnen organiseren of elkaar kunnen informeren of matchen.
Netwerkdag

Elk jaar organiseert het Els Borst Netwerk een Netwerkdag, waar (niet) leden van het netwerk elkaar kunnen ontmoeten, van gedachten kunnen wisselen en kunnen sparren over ambities. Meer informatie over de Netwerkdag is hier te vinden.

[pieter]

[pieter]

nos.nl/artikel/2476459-dochters-kaag-hopen-dat-hun-moeder-iets-anders-gaat-doen

On this website you see an emotional Sigid Kaag; "She says, sorry that I am emotional, but these are my children."

[pieter]

When Sigrid Kaag won the elections in 2021

[pieter]

NOS News•
today, 12:54 pm

The impact on families is great, but Dutch ministers do not want to succumb to threats

Before the start of the Council of Ministers, Minister Sigrid Kaag's colleagues in the cabinet reacted this morning to the message that her daughters want her to do something else quickly, because they fear for her safety. "This is very touching. It happens to her, but then it happens to all of us, the entire democracy," says Deputy Prime Minister Wopke Hoekstra.

Hoekstra says he also has to deal with threats. "But they are of a different order, because the terrible extent to which she experiences it is fortunately less important to me and most others. But the impact is great for many. To be honest, I think there are few families of ministers who are cheering in the work we do."

Minister Hugo de Jonge also had many conversations at home about the threats he receives. "There have been situations with some regularity where the kids wished I had had a different job," he says. De Jonge thought the TV fragment with Kaag's daughters was "really horrible" and "very impressive" to see and understands that the D66 deputy prime minister is thinking about perhaps quitting. He would seriously consider that if he were her.

But although his family comes first, De Jonge has not wanted to stop until now. "Because in the end you also want evil not to win. We must not let that happen together."


Deputy Prime Minister Wopke Hoekstra


Kaag about her son: "He absolutely does not want me to come over"


One of Sigrid Kaag's 2 sons

Kaag herself said this morning that she was completely surprised when she was confronted with the fragment in the College Tour program. She had expected her daughters to say something light-hearted, but that was not the case. She says that the question of whether she should stop is "a continuous consideration", but is not an immediate issue right now. She still feels "firm" enough and the moment is not right. "There are no elections and we have been able to take major steps as a cabinet, so I also feel that responsibility."

Kaag also said that the influence of the threat on her family goes so far that her son does not want her to visit him in his new home. He does visit her house, but the comments he gets as her son are "too personal, just not nice. You want to live your own life and not be yelled at like, hey, your mom this or that."


The Dutch political climate has hardened since corona time


Christianne van der Wal-Zeggelink (born 13 November 1973) is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). She has been the chair of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy since 25 November 2017. She is currently serving as Minister for Nature and Nitrogen Policy in the Fourth Rutte cabinet.

Minister Christianne van der Wal does not want to comment on whether her children have ever asked her to stop. She points out that once, when talking to angry farmers on the front steps of her house, she made the "mistake" of saying that her children were shaking indoors. "It bothers them to this day that I made that comment."

She then decided to keep work and private life strictly separated. "My children see their mother at work and they see that there is always a threat, of course that does something to them."

About the heartfelt cry of Kaag's daughters on television, she says: "That is of course very important to me. That would also affect me enormously. But you cannot compare it to the situation I am in now. nor family."

The recently departed ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Segers responded this morning on Radio 1 in a similar way: "I said to my wife and three daughters at home, also at the beginning when I became a member of parliament: you have a right of veto. I'm going to stop." He does think, just like De Jonge, that you should postpone that decision as long as possible. "If you give in, you give in to harassment and blackmail. But at the same time, the most important thing you have is the family."

Segers says that the climate has hardened since corona time and that people have also been at his door, "in a very intimidating way". "I had to sign a lot of reports. There have been lawsuits against threateners. I never thought when I started that I would have to experience that."


Former ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Segers. ChristenUnie is next to Sigrid Kaag's center left Social Liberal D66 party, prime minister Rutte's center right Conservative Liberal VVD and the social conservative Christian Democratic Party of Hugo de Jonge, one of the 4 political parties that participate in the Rutte cabinet. All ministers and also Mark Rutte are seriously under threat of all kinds of threats.

[pieter]

Tears with Sigrid Kaag after she heard her daughters words and warning about the murdered politician Elst Borst