Incorrectly paired

On Monday, the Lower House voted in favour of an amendment to the asylum law submitted by the PVV, which seemed to make asylum policy even stricter. There was an unexpected majority in favour of criminalising illegality. It turned out to be a 'misunderstanding' on the left. The pairing had been wrong. Pairing, as we were later told at all the discussion tables, means that a Member of Parliament, in case of absence, looks for another Member of Parliament who votes against and agrees that he or she will not be present at the vote. This almost always goes well.

Nieuwsuur sought out Christine Teunissen of the Party for the Animals, she had not managed to pair up. Christine was in the Oosterpark in Amsterdam during the vote. "At the commemoration of our terrible slavery past." She emphasized the word 'terrible'. Almost everyone thinks our slavery past is terrible, the adjective was actually redundant, but she liked to say it, so that we could hear that she is really on the right side of the line.

That was necessary because she also found it 'terrible' that the amendment had been adopted, partly due to her absence from the vote, but she refused to take responsibility for that. She simply thought it was stupid that there had been a vote at all. That was disrespectful to members of parliament like herself, who had taken the trouble to be present at the commemoration of our terrible slavery past.

When asked by Nieuwsuur why she hadn't paired, she replied that pairing is an incredibly complicated system. Which it isn't.

CT: I tried to pair.

Nieuwsuur: Why didn't that work?

CT: You will have to ask other parties that.

Nieuwsuur: Nobody wants to pair with you?

CT: I tried.

News Hour: With whom?

CT: I tried to pair.

News Hour: With whom?

CT: I tried.

Nieuwsuur: Why don't you want to say with whom?

Because Christine Teunissen had not tried to pair at all, the interviewer knew that too. He had a bite. Christine Teunissen was on the hook, but kept struggling. Christine Teunissen thought it was ridiculous that there had been a vote on the day of Keti Koti. She was at the commemoration in Amsterdam, more members of parliament should have been there.

Because of Christine Teunissen, illegality was in danger of becoming punishable. Threatened. Because yesterday Henri Bontenbal announced that the CDA will no longer support the new asylum law precisely because of the adopted amendment on criminalizing illegality. You could say: partly thanks to Christine Teunissen. If she had done her best to pair, the new, stricter asylum law would have come into effect anyway. Does that make Christine Teunissen a finished politician? I would have liked to grant it to the Party for the Animals, but please watch the Nieuwsuur broadcast again. She cannot lie. And she cannot pair.

Marcel van Roosmalen writes a column on Mondays and Thursdays.