That Martin Bosma, PVV's culture spokesman, wants to withdraw the subsidy to Toneelgroep Amsterdam because that company performs work by 'enemy of the people' Tom Lanoye, was not even the most bizarre incident of the culture budget debate on 21 November 2011. More bizarre, even than the PVV's demand for the establishment of a Colonial Museum celebrating the glory of 'Our Indies', was the attitude of Halbe Zijlstra, state secretary of culture. Indeed, several times during the debate, he managed to associate the word 'Nice' with a measure that on one occasion cost a few thousand jobs, and on another occasion killed an entire industry.
And it ís also fun, of course, when you have a job to do and you succeed better than everyone expects. It is even more fun when, during the debate, you find that you have covered up every possible counteraction by the opposition with a new measure.
You can enjoy that.
That is also why the secretary of state sat with a tremendous smile on his face throughout the debate, laughing at every motion tabled by the opposition. After all: all hopeless.
Officials at the ministry of OCW have been aware of Zijlstra's behaviour ever since the state secretary, in his first appearance on Pauw and Witteman, exclaimed with laughter that no one in the arts was sure of his life.
A year of media training did not help.
Still the secretary of state is laughing at his own success. That is why the live broadcast of the debate opted for the extreme solution: the state secretary must at all costs not appear close-up in the picture. It must have been quite an operation in software terms, as the automatic camera system of the Groen van Prinsteren room in the House of Representatives always zooms in on the person speaking.
Except so on Zijlstra, this time.
To limit the damage.
It hardly helped.
Incidentally, the change manager had the greatest pleasure at the end, when Jasper van Dijk, of the SP, expressed the hope that the cabinet would soon fall, so that the disproportionate cut of against 45% on culture could be undone. Chance-less, Zijlstra argued, because that will no longer be possible, as the cutback has now become law. So that reversal will take at least four years.
Zijlstra has done an excellent job. Even the Council of State approved the intervention, without a single legal comment.
The opposition, along with the arts sector, is on the ropes, knocked out.
After the debate, VVD culture spokesman Bart de Liefde visited the premiere of the film Nova Zembla. He was impressed. On Twitter, he let it be known:
@deliefde #NovaZembla is an un-Dutch good film! Compliments to the makers and cast!
It caused quite a stir, upon which Love deleted his tweet and issued a half apology:
@deliefde: My compliment on #NovaZembla "un-Dutch good" raises questions, I notice. Daaom: film is top notch! So better? #Dutchfimrocks
However, his vision of the culture he claims to champion has not gone unnoticed.
Watch our live coverage of the 'debate' on 21 November below.
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