Frans Timmermans is not prime minister because he is bald.
Arno Kantelberg on the carpet during the opening night of IFFR 2023.
Photo: ANP/Ramon van Flymen
The battle for the premiership is a hot topic. Will it be Dylan Yeshelgoss, Frans Timmermann or Peter Umtzigt? After the CDA put forward Henri Pontipal as party leader today, there is another candidate. According to journalist Arnaud Kantelberg, one of those names definitely doesn’t stand a chance: Frans Timmermans. According to him, good hair is essential to become prime minister.
He said that today on the KRO-NRCV program speech makers On NPO Radio 1.
Arno Kantelberg on Spraakmakers’ bald premiers
Cantelberg is convinced that bald men have less chance of becoming prime minister. “Always makes me laugh, but there’s a reason there wasn’t a bald prime minister in this country in the last century. It must have a Dutch prime minister. Henry Pontipal has good hair. Balkenende, Rutte and Wim Kok: they had beautiful hair. Timmermans wouldn’t be him We don’t want a bald prime minister.”
Fellow guest Frank Meijbom (an expert on the human-animal relationship) agrees with Kantelberg that appearance plays a role. Kantelberg cites the United States as an example. “In America, that was played out a lot. There it is absolutely inconceivable for you to run in elections without it.” But Kantelberg has no conclusive argument for why. “There will undoubtedly be a social explanation for this, I don’t know. I’m just eliciting facts. Appearance plays a major role.”
“What would be the credible story of the CDA?”
Former journalist news hourEditor-in-Chief Yost Orange had his doubts. He believes such things exist to be broken. “Of course we will soon also have a question from the first female prime minister, Dylan Yeselgauz. This will of course also come into play. She also has good hair.”
He thinks that Pontibal should rely less on his poetry and more on his story. “The interesting thing if you look at the CDA in the Balkenende period is that it was a refugee island at the time Fortuyn was killed. The people yearned for peace. Balkenende had no such ideological story at all, quite the contrary. And it didn’t hurt him. Pontipal can’t stand this attitude. He must say something.”
But what, that’s the big question according to Orange. “What will be the credible story for the CDA? He has to build a story around it. I think that’s the only strategy that can make the CDA successful. It’s going to be a really tough fight.”
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