Eppo Bruins will go for damage control

Eppo, what are you doing? That was my immediate thought upon hearing that Eppo Bruins is joining the cabinet of PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB as the Minister of Education, Culture and Science. Years ago, I interviewed him in his role as director of research funding agency STW during the formation of the Rutte I administration, which was supported by the PVV. At the time, he fervently hoped that the most right-wing political experiment in Dutch political history would fail, he confided to me during a casual chat on my way out. I always assumed that the convictions behind such a stance would be deeply rooted. Clearly, I was mistaken.

Why does a sensible individual like Bruins join such a cabinet? Both PVV and BBB are parties that yearn for an idealized past, when the streets were filled with fair-skinned people and farmers worked in harmony with nature. For them, the past is a blueprint for the future. Any plans aimed at safeguarding the prosperity of the Netherlands are, first and foremost, judged against ideological and nostalgic sentiments.