bControversy is never far away for Marjolein Faber (63), a member of the PVV. In Gelderland politics, where he started working for the PVV thirteen years ago, he managed to anger many people from the beginning. ‘My views are clear. Closed mosque means closed mosque. Closed borders means closed borders. There is no nuance,” she admits, according to the local newspaper. The Gelderland Interview her about the resistance she provokes.
Almost all of his political opponents in the Gelderland Provincial Council feel insulted: they are “false deputies” who do not listen to the wishes of the “people,” says Faber. He calls a 12-year-old boy who expresses concern about the climate a “climate soldier” and does not hesitate to tell him that he thinks it is a shame that his parents abuse him for a political debate.
Together with Geert Wilders, he protested in 2017 against the appointment of Ahmed Marcouch as mayor of Arnhem, the capital of Gelderland. Together they hold a large banner with the words: ‘No Arnhemmistan! We are losing our country!’
Faber also seeks controversy on a national level. Thirteen years ago he not only actively participated in the Gelderland Provincial Council, but almost at the same time also became a member of the Senate. Last December he resigned from both positions to take a seat in the House of Representatives.
Initially, Faber does not seem destined to play such a major role in politics. He grew up in Amersfoort and, after MAVO and HAVO, ended up on the HBO radio diagnostics course in Utrecht. Parallel to her studies, she began working as a laboratory technician at the age of 18. More than eight years later, he trained to become an IT specialist, a career he continued for no less than 25 years. With “frugality and diligence,” he says he manages to earn a house, Faber said in 2015. NRC. She gets married and has two children. Only after the age of fifty did he begin a serious political career.
‘False representatives’
His attacking style sometimes causes so much displeasure in The Hague that his opponents sometimes demand that he be stopped from speaking. For example, in 2015, the VVD president in the Senate turned off her microphone when she repeatedly called her fellow senators “false representatives.”
His explanation of this political dispute also speaks to his political views. ‘I call the deputies false representatives because they are not doing what they are supposed to do. They are supposed to protect the Netherlands. But it’s not like that. They extradite to Holland. “The Dutch population is simply replaced by an Islamic population,” Faber said.
Nazi ideology
In 2020 he again complained in the Senate about the “repopulation” of the Netherlands due to immigration. When then-Prime Minister Mark Rutte points out that he is using a term that comes from “Nazi ideology,” Faber wants nothing to do with it. He claims that the term “repopulation” is a direct translation of United Nations documents. Rutte’s witty response goes viral on social media: “Listen, every sensible person with any sense of history knows where the term population comes from: from Adolf Hitler’s circles.”
In 2022, he will lose the floor again in the Senate, because he calls the cabinet “the fifth column”, a term that is usually associated with betrayal of one’s own people.
And then there are also integrity issues: Faber appears to have hired his own son to create PVV websites for thousands of euros. “It’s not convenient,” says Wilders, but according to him no rules have been broken. In 2019, he spread fake news claiming that the perpetrator of a stabbing in Groningen had a “North African appearance”. Even when witnesses claim otherwise, she continues to insist: “My tweet is correct.”
hate is good
“It’s good when people hate you,” he said last year of his debating style and perseverance. But the question is how far he will go with that style now that he has a completely different political role than the one he played for Wilders for the last thirteen years. If Faber passes the AIVD exam, at the end of June she will take office on behalf of the PVV as the new Minister of Asylum and Migration. In Brussels, she will need a lot of diplomatic skills to be able to expand the asylum treaties in such a way that the Netherlands can apply a stricter asylum policy.
Not everyone trusts Faber to be able to do this, not even his potential followers. ‘If you go to Brussels to opt out, you need a shrewd negotiator, a top player with strategic qualities. He is not an angry shouter who calls for resistance everywhere, “says, for example, JA21 leader Joost Eerdmans. The Telegraph. His VVD coalition partners are also concerned about whether Faber can act effectively “in the national interest.”
deep suspicion
By way of reassurance, Faber said Friday that he “understands” the “shock” that has arisen from statements he made in the past as a “member of the opposition.” She promises: “As a member of the cabinet, I will of course express myself within the lines of the Main Agreement and the rule of law declaration.”
This statement could not prevent his candidacy from arousing deep suspicion among a large part of the House of Representatives. Parties such as GroenLinks-PvdA, D66 and Denk are very concerned that “far-right ideas” have infiltrated the government through Faber. The winner of the elections, Wilders, ignores the criticism for the moment. For him, the most important thing is that Faber is an intensely loyal member of the PVV, someone who can also make his tough asylum policy heard at home and abroad.
