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President of Dutch House of Representatives steps down

Xinhua, December 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

Anouchka van Miltenburg, president of one of the Chambers of the Dutch parliament, who had received a lot of criticism as chairman of the House in the past, suddenly stepped down on Saturday.

Miltenburg's role had been blasted in the very critical Oosting Report, made public last Wednesday, of the Teeven deal of 15 years ago. This deal between former Dutch chief prosecutor Fred Teeven and a drug lord had been slammed by the committee to investigate the controversial settlement.

About one year ago the president of the House of Representatives, called the Tweede Kamer (or Second Chamber), received a letter from an anonymous bell-ringer in which all the details of the Teeven deal with the drug lord were pointed out. After being read, the letter was duly put into the shredder, as the then procedure required.

However, when asked by the Oosting committee, if she was aware of details of the settlement, she did not mention the letter received by the bell-ringer, and denied any knowledge of the deal.

Van Miltenburg, 48, who started as president of the House of Representatives in September 2012, still insists that hers was the only right position, but in view of the many very critical questions of parliamentarians to be answered by her next week, her situation was seen as untenable by many observers.

She will remain a member of parliament for the VVD (Liberals), one of the coalition parties of the Dutch government. Endit