videoThe complaints about sexually transgressive behavior by ex-Volt Member of Parliament Nilüfer Gündogan were about ‘a slap on the buttocks and comments about appearance’, as it turned out during summary proceedings today. Gundogan is also said to have ‘a problematic relationship with alcohol’.
Hanneke Keultjes
Latest update:
21:06
Her lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops dismissed the latter accusation as ‘nonsense’. He states that the only concrete complaint comes from a former friend of Gundogan who went to work for the group and was not given a contract extension on her initiative because of ‘a lack of quality’.
Volt’s lawyer, Rachelle Mourits, disputed that. “It is not about one person who may not get on very well with Gundogan, it is not about one quarrel or one advance, but it is about a structural pattern.” three about sexual advances. The reporters found that ‘both uncomfortable and intimidating’, also because there was a difference ‘in age and position’.
Correction
The battle between Volt and former party member Gundogan continued in court today. There, Gundogan demanded a rectification of the allegations against her and an advance on damages. She also states that Volt acted unlawfully by suspending her from the House of Representatives faction.
That happened on Sunday 13 February, when the party announced with a press release that ‘reports’ had been received about ‘transgressive behaviour’. An investigation into Gundogan by an independent integrity agency was already underway and was being expanded, Volt announced. Knoops called this ‘a draconian measure’ that was ‘premature and unnecessarily damaging’ for Volt’s number 2.
Only after her suspension did more reports come in, said Knoops. Volt party leader Laurens Dassen said there had been ‘signals’ about undesirable behavior for some time. There were also “several conversations” with her about “foul language” and “inappropriate statements” that “do not always align” with what Volt wants “to convey.”
mediation
During the investigation into the reports, Gundogan was asked “time and again” to give her side of the story, Volt said, but she declined because she believed the agency was not independent. The mediation process that was started on Wednesday 23 February, and according to Gündogan’s lawyers had to remain secret, turned out to ‘not lead to an appropriate solution’. She was then permanently expelled from the Volt faction last Saturday.
Gündogan knew nothing about that decision, said Knoops. Although she received an email on Saturday morning inviting her to a Volt meeting to begin an hour later, Gundogan was on the phone and did not see the email. The subject of the e-mail already indicated what would be discussed: the termination of Gündogan’s party membership.
flamoes
Nilüfer Gündogan said after the hearing that he was ‘quite directive’. ,,I’ve grumbled quite a bit in the campaign stress.” But she mainly wants ‘name clearing’ for the accusations of sexually transgressive behaviour. “I am also a mother. I couldn’t start the parent-teacher conference without promising the teacher in good conscience that I wouldn’t do the kinds of things that have appeared in the press. Even more than my political career, that’s what touches me.”
According to her, going to court is the only way to achieve that, she said emotionally. “When you think of sexually transgressive behavior you think of a woman who sends out pictures of her flamoes! How rancid is this?!”
During the session, Knoops announced that Gundogan asked the Integrity Investigation Board of the House of Representatives last Friday to investigate Volt. The preliminary relief judge also wanted to know why Volt himself did not go to this college instead of calling in an agency. There was no clear answer.
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However, the lawyer stated that Volt wanted to have an investigation carried out ‘in peace’ and ‘with due regard for everyone’s interests’. Now the case was “publicly discussed at the initiative of Mrs. Gundogan.” That went a bridge too far for the judge. ,,With Volt’s press release, it was already public, wasn’t it? According to Mourits, Volt was ‘reluctant’.
Pattern of harassment
She outlined a pattern of intimidation by Gundogan, that she would use ‘obvious falsehoods’ and how she ‘trys to get her way’ through the press. Mourits quoted from an email in which Gündogan says she is ‘steadily public’ to tell her story. ‘Sunday Volkskrant and Buitenhof† Monday Jinek† Gundogan did not do this, by the way. Still, according to Mourits, it is ‘characteristic of the tone with which Gündogan communicates when she doesn’t get her way’.
But according to Knoops, Gündogan had to jump through all the hoops that Volt held up for her. “It was swallow or choke.”
The preliminary relief judge will rule on Wednesday 9 March. She said at the start of the hearing, which lasted for hours, that she had doubts whether ‘this battle with a legal judgment can be brought to a successful conclusion’. “I’m afraid there will only be losers.” Volt party leader Dassen acknowledged that there are “only losers.” “While the European Union is currently operating as one front in the war in Ukraine, we as a European party are only working on this. That is of course very painful.”
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