Farewell, Pepijn – and see you soon!

On Tuesday, the Lower House formally bids farewell to all outgoing MPs. Among them are MPs who wish to retire themselves and therefore did not stand for re-election, but also MPs who simply did not get enough votes to be re-elected. Pepijn van Houwelingen, to our great regret, falls into the latter category.

That Pepijn has to wave goodbye as an MP is a great loss - not only for Forum for Democracy, but for the whole of the Netherlands. With his departure from the Lower House, a wealth of knowledge is lost. A true representative of the people must make way for someone else.

Pepijn has meant a great deal in the Lower House for a until recently unheard-of group of Dutch people. Like no one else, he has given great thought to people's lack of understanding during the Covid crisis. He addressed the disproportionality and injustice of the policy. And he has always kept his back straight at times when it really mattered. Pepijn is, in short, a steadfast, critical checker of power - as you would expect from a representative of the people.

His critical stance has not always earned him gratitude from government officials. "Why do you distrust us so much anyway?" Pepijn's response to this kind of feigned indignation is always, “Trust is good, but control is better.”

And so it is. People's representatives are not elected in order to cosy up to ministers for tea. They have to check power, enforce accountability. And Pepijn has done that like no other. For all Dutch people. For instance, he was the only one to expose and get to the bottom of the financial abuses at the Ministry of Health and Sport.

Citizens whose concerns are invariably ignored by other parties have Pepijn's number. They are welcome at his office, they are offered a listening ear. By Pepijn. He is the only MP who personally answers all his e-mails (and there are many thousands of them). He makes time for that, he considers it important.

We will never forget Pepijn's tireless commitment, his hard work until late hours and his accessibility as a people's representative. Not to mention his excellent research work.

It was once joked at the FVD party that if Pepijn ever quit, they could lay off 30 full-time employees at every ministry. That is how many parliamentary questions he asks, including about the World Economic Forum. The information he has managed to bring out with his highly specific and substantive questions has been shared worldwide - and also used to put other governments on the block. The entire globalist power structure has been mapped out by Pepijn. Craftsmanship. And we cannot thank him enough for that.

Of course, Pepijn will remain closely involved in our party. In another role within our broad change movement. We are very happy about that. And who knows what the future will bring? But for now, we would very much like to say a heartfelt thank you on behalf of the entire Forum for Democracy organisation:

Pepijn, thank you for everything!