TV review | The party leaders only needed a little push to tap into their baser instincts

On November 2, I still thought I was looking forward to the first SBS election debate ever. Pieter Omtzigt would not be there, but he was there on Thursday evening The Netherlands debate. Just before it started, I saw a tail of it The allies. Four teams of four ‘allies’ who must work together to win 100,000 euros – but betrayal, deception or self-interest threatens the coalitions. The teams are named after predators: snakes, foxes, sharks and vultures. Before I understood exactly how the rules worked, the debate started where zero rules appeared to apply.

In a studio converted into an arena stood Wilfred Genee, the presenter of the most watched talk show Today Inside. Because it is “SBS and so bit catchy” was supposed to be, he called in the party leaders of the four major parties in turn. Dilan Yesilgöz (VVD), Pieter Omtzigt (NSC), Frans Timmermans (GroenLinks-PvdA) and Geert Wilders (PVV) trotted onto the floor and took their places standing at a round table. Genee was debate leader and declarant – he listed the problems of the Netherlands: poverty, migration, healthcare. Wilders was the first to bite. The Netherlands was at a crossroads, only with his party would the country move in the right direction and as far as he was concerned, that was worth a round of applause. This would are evening, a performance for his audience, his voters were in the audience. Their applause sounded loud and clear.

False trap

The bear was loose, the “gloves were off,” the audience smelled blood. The politicians just needed a little push to tap into their baser instincts. In every school there is a shark, fox, snake, vulture. Only one was prey: Frans Timmermans. Dilan Yesilgöz continuously hissed “but Mr. Timmermans” when Timmermans was speaking. She shook her head, laughed at him and said something when he said nothing. The SBS editors had prepared a false trap for her. In the studio was the big boss of an employment agency for migrant workers. He was there to ask Yesilgöz a question about housing for migrant workers, but the attention was focused on the 100,000 euros he had donated to the VVD campaign. Genee wanted to know if he had Dilan’s 06 number. “Short lines to take care of things?”

Geert Wilders pulled out his asylum stop – 24 hours ago he had promised to park his most radical ideas to enable cooperation with other parties. But this evening he simply had to close the border again and then he rushed straight to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, where “immigrants” are now in the majority. Timmermans wanted to counter that, really, I heard him do it. But he is no Mark Rutte, who was often the boss of Wilders. The attempt failed when Wilders said that Timmermans could “demand until he weighed an ounce”, which in his case would take some time. Full of the man and his size, not neat, but it made him laugh, 1-0 for Wilders. Wilfred Genee turned out not to be a debate leader, not even a referee, but a game leader who encouraged and cheered on the pack.

Pieter Omtzigt was quietly waiting for his chance to score points, and he seized it when Yesilgöz and Timmermans were shouting at each other about whose party the middle class was better off. “If it has to be this way, I will work with you,” Omtzigt said to Wilders. He then walked around the table to shake his hand.

Of final kill

This debate was a low point. I thought, but I must be wrong. Immediately after the “best debate ever” people flew in VI Genee received compliments. He quickly ran from one studio to another. Then the men pounced “die Timmermans” for the final kill.

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