Dutch Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag is considering her political future over continued threats from conspiracy theorists and right wing extremists.
During an interview with a Dutch TV show broadcast on Thursday, the country’s first female finance minister watched a video of her two daughters asking for her to quit her job as they fear for her life. “They are worried and I think their worries are justified,” Kaag said. “I always listen to my daughters.”
Kaag has faced multiple death threats since she became the leader of the liberal Democrats 66 party in 2020 and then finance minister in 2022. Earlier this year, she was confronted by an angry mob carrying torches during a work visit. A man with a flaming torch was arrested outside her house last year.
Memories of the murder in 2014 of another female D66 politician, Els Borst, over her stance on euthanasia are still fresh in the minds of the population.
Female politicians in the Netherlands are more likely to face violent threats and aggression compared to their male colleagues according to a recent study by the Interior Ministry.
Dutch intelligence service also warned Thursday that up to 100,000 people in the Netherlands believe in conspiracy theories about an “evil elite” ruling the world and explicitly linked this phenomenon to the threats against Kaag’s life.
“As a student, I used to be afraid of the letterbox because of big bills,” Kaag said in October 2021 during a court case against a man who had threatened to kill her on a Facebook group. “Today I fear the threatening letters. I am afraid to open my mailbox.”
