De Volkskrant asks cartoonist Jos Collignon to leave after 44 years

Cartoonist Jos Collignon is retiring after 44 years de Volkskrant, who asked him to leave. The 73-year-old cartoonist announced this on Tuesday morning the radio program MISCHA!. Collignon has won several prizes for his work, including the Inktspot Prize and the Grand Prize of Press Cartoon Europe.

According to the illustrator, the conversation about his departure went smoothly. “It was an excellent conversation in which I gained a broad understanding from the editors-in-chief,” said Collignon. “But at the end he said he wanted to get rid of me.” The reason for the farewell is according to de Volkskrant that “it is time for new voices and styles.” The cartoonist currently delivers two cartoons a week to the Volkskranthis last contribution will appear on July 13.

The newspaper confirmed Collignon's departure in an internal email. “His lively, witty, sharp and inimitable cartoons are still iconic to this day,” writes editor-in-chief Pieter Klok. “So it was a difficult decision,” which, according to Klok, “has nothing to do with the recent fuss about his Israel cartoon.” According to the editor-in-chief, it had already been decided before that incident to say goodbye to Collignon.

Anti-Semitism

The famous cartoonist was discredited last November, not for the first time, because of a drawing that many considered anti-Semitic. It shows “a big thumb on a long arm,” on which an Israeli flag is depicted and above which is the text “Reviving anti-Semitism everywhere.” “Oh dear, sorry – forgot to condemn Hamas first,” it reads below. The cartoon was placed on the day that Kristallnacht was commemorated and received criticism from, among others, former PvdA leader Lodewijk Asscher and outgoing Minister of the Interior Hugo de Jonge (CDA). It was not the first time that elements of Collignon's drawings were called anti-Semitic.

Klok defended the cartoon and refused to remove it. The editor-in-chief previously did this with a cartoon about the success of the Moroccan football team. The drawing depicted two young men on a scooter with a Moroccan flag, who snatched a golden cup from the hands of FIFA president Gianni Infantino and drove away laughing. The cartoon was removed because, according to Klok, it was “stigmatizing” and would contribute “to the exclusion of a population group.”

Collignon started making cartoons about current topics 47 years ago. He signed for it before 1980 NRC Handelsblad. Collignon says he does not yet know what he will do after his departure.

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