Second Chamber Speaker Vera Bergkamp talks with great frequency about the "colleagues in the Chamber." Thierry Baudet is now publicly responding to that. Because, he says, there are colleagues there, not colleagues. With colleagues you are fraternal and sociable. With colleagues you engage in hard debates, which of course is exactly what you should be doing.
"We are not colleagues," writes the FVD leader on Twitter. "We are colleagues in office. We are not in the Chamber for fun, for atmosphere, for dignity, for respect."
So why do House members sit there? "We sit there to have the big discussions and debates as the highest body of the nation on major issues. We sit there for the clash of opinions."
"That's the House of Representatives," he continued. "That's democracy. Not a micro-managing top layer of civil service. Not a support-building institution to move the population in a certain direction. No tea party. No sweet rolls."
Precisely because the debate should be able to be so fierce, Article 7 1 of the Constitution gives MPs immunity, Baudet explained. "That is because we really must be able to say anything. Because in one place in the country, in one meeting room, the raw, cold, hard truth must come to light."
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Bergkamp is known for often addressing MPs about "the tone" of the debate. If things are said that people might take offence to, she responds almost immediately, telling MPs to take their words back. MPs from FVD and PVV almost always refuse to do so because - indeed, they then say with regularity - they are there to voice their opinions, not to make friends.