The position of Speaker of the DPR is too often ridiculed. In the election results debate, PVV leader Wilders also stated that the President of the DPR was too biased towards his own party, D66. Members of the DPR and citizens have been criticizing the President of the DPR in this way for some time now. Meanwhile, the President of the DPR must be seen as an independent figure above the party.

Critics claim that President Bergkamp’s current DPR is a kind of extension of the cabinet. The President of the DPR should not be treated like that.

However, the debate should be about substantive matters and not about whether or not the Speaker of the DPR is partisan. The President of the DPR deserves more respect. Therefore, the House of Representatives should add a 151st Member of Parliament and thus guarantee an independent chairman.

Profit
The proposal I made is not a new proposal. In early 2003, SP Member of Parliament Kant put forward a proposal asking the House of Representatives to elect a chairman from among its members. The elected president will lose his right to vote in the DPR, but this will make him more independent in leading. Of course, the chairperson’s chair will not be lost, because the chairperson’s faction will be added to the next candidate on the voter list. For example, a faction would not suffer a loss if it wanted to provide a leader.

Both former DPR president Frans Weisglas (VVD) and Khadija Arib (PvdA) have expressed support for an independent president. Frans Weisglas goes even one step further. In 2003, for example, he also proposed that the chairman of the DPR leave the party and no longer have anything to do with the party, as in Great Britain. This way you make the independence of the Speaker of the DPR more visible and you get a chairman who stands above the party.

Apart from that, small parties can also compete for the DPR presidency in this way. Currently, smaller parties will lose a large part of their faction if they want to nominate DPR President, but with the introduction of the 151st DPR Member, this barrier will be removed.

Counter
In 2003, the problem was that there was a kind of voter fraud, when someone who was elected to run a political program did not carry out this task. In addition, it remains to be seen whether the chairman of the DPR can step down if he is found to be unfit to be chairman. Also, the process of inaugurating the 151st Members of Parliament will take many years, as a constitutional revision is required to make this idea a reality.

In addition, it is also not certain whether the 151st seat will actually make the DPR President more independent. The President of the DPR is still elected from a certain party, as is currently the case. Fortunately, nowadays even though they are affiliated with the party, most of the President of the DPR is functioning properly, but criticism of the President’s partiality must be reduced and therefore he must be independent.

Crisis of confidence
The crisis of confidence in the cabinet appears to have continued on a number of fronts, up to a crisis of confidence in the President of the DPR. This is because the public’s trust in the government is very low. The results of the recent Provincial Council elections have demonstrated this very well.

If politicians are to restore trust, choices must be made. In this case, the losses, due in part to a crisis of confidence, do not outweigh the gains. Therefore, the choice to inaugurate an independent chairman of the DPR is a good choice and must be implemented as soon as possible. Confidence was partially restored in this way and the impartiality of the President of the DPR will not be doubted in the future.