The House of Representatives wants to debate the leaking of the investigation into former Speaker of the House Khadija Arib. The debate was requested by PVV member Gidi Markuszower, who resigned from the House’s board on Monday due to dissatisfaction with the situation.
According to Markuszower, no stone should be left unturned. His request for a debate with the presidium, as the board of the House of Representatives is called, received a majority in the House on Tuesday.
Until recently, Markuszower was also a member of that presidium. On Monday, he stepped down, as did PVV member Elmar Vlottes. Markuszower wanted the presidium to commission an investigation into the leak and the possible involvement of former members of parliament, including former Speaker of the House Vera Bergkamp.
The presidium met about this on Monday, but did not reach a decision. The House’s board will discuss this again at a later time.
Markuszower’s request was supported by PVV as well as BBB, PvdD, SP, GroenLinks-PvdA, FVD and JA21. Other parties want to await the presidium’s decision first.
But given the busy agenda of the House of Representatives, it may take some time before this debate actually takes place. Several members of parliament have already suggested combining this with a debate scheduled for June 30.
Leak came from the presidium itself
The case revolves around a plan to investigate Arib’s behavior. In 2022, the then-board of the House of Representatives, under the leadership of Arib’s successor Bergkamp, decided to conduct such an investigation based on anonymous complaints. But before Arib herself was informed of this, the news ended up in NRC.
How that news was leaked from the presidium is not yet clear. Bergkamp’s former spokesman stood trial for this last week, but was acquitted. According to the judge, it could not be proven that she shared this still confidential news with NRC journalists.
However, the investigation shows that more people were involved in the leak. For example, Follow the Money and Nieuwsuur wrote on Wednesday that Bergkamp had, among other things, deleted the messages she sent to her former spokesman. According to those media, there was also close contact between, among others, the former spokesman, Bergkamp and the clerk (the highest official of the House) before the leak.
The Public Prosecution Service may only conduct criminal investigations into non-members of parliament. It is up to the House itself to determine whether further investigation should be conducted into the former members of parliament. Ultimately, the Supreme Court could rule whether there is a crime in office.