Norbert Solms is in July 2024 dismissed from the National Police due to racist and discriminatory comments on X (Twitter). The report of the AGFA committee shows that it involved thousands of tweets from which the Public Prosecution Service 40 -50 tweets had been selected for prosecution. Ultimately, however, the Public Prosecution Service preferred to handle the case via the employer.
Solms had been working since 1999 at the police. Only during a reintegration process (after disability) in another team, a colleague makes an internal report about a number of tweets in which he, among other things, officers on duty in Paris say 'less less less’ shouted in a video supports. He will therefore be born in April 2023 immediately taken out of function for further investigation.
The AGFA committee ( Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights and Functional Performance of Civil Servants) allows her advice July 2024: “The official repeatedly posted messages with the words on the Twitter account “Less, less, less”, or variations thereof, in the context of reporting on (apparently) misconduct by immigrants, migrants or asylum seekers. He has also posted messages in which he (Muslim)migrants and asylum seekers as “drippings” en “paupers” and let us know that this is the country “cut out” must become. He has put in other messages “Stop allowing Somalis on trains and on platforms” (in response to apparent misconduct at the NS) en “Fuck off with those guys” (about the Syrian who allegedly tried to stab his sister to death). In the messages he responds to an action by a group or individual, but he refers to a population group as a whole. With a video of a young man standing on a floor of a building, he wrote: “I was still hopeful that he would jump”. He responded to a message about football riots after the Morocco-Belgium match with the words: “Sprinkle quicklime over it and back in reverse”.”
The Public Prosecutor has therefore ultimately ruled that internal settlement by the employer is preferable to criminal settlement.. The Public Prosecution Service has given permission to use the criminal file for the purpose of disciplinary proceedings. Solms seems to be escaping from justice with the dismissal.
Solms and the PVV
What makes the punishment extra salient is that Norbert Solms has been active for the PVV for years. He worked for the faction in the Provincial Council in South Holland, was also an observer member there ( farewell 2015), was a faction representative for the PVV in The Hague and is also in 2022 was on the PVV electoral list for the municipal elections here.
It is also striking that Lilian Helder (then a Member of Parliament for the PVV, not Member of Parliament for BBB) continued to support him after his suspension. Published in the NRC on 6 May 2023 an interview with Lilian Helder about her relationship with the police. She was also asked about Solms' statements.
Lilian Helder says about this: “I know this officer and taste is debatable, but he also has the right to freedom of expression. He stands up for colleagues. There is a double standard here. I find it strange that he is immediately thrown under the bus through the media.” The police issued a press release about the suspension. “The management could have told him that they didn't think it was very nice, anno no. But now their own street is being swept clean to be shown to the outside world: look at our good performance. You are turning the workplace against you by acting this way.”
After the punishment dismissal in July 2024 also defends ex-PVV MP Harm Beertema (not interim chairman Ongehoord Nederland) Solms again in one tweet: “I have often met this police officer through and through when I was involved in the Provincial Council of South Holland in the past.. An extremely sympathetic man, the peace itself, but above all professional and honest. The work of a police officer in the big city demands a lot from the people, especially if you already do that job 25 lasts for years. What I know for sure is that the accusations against this police officer are unjustified and that he serves his country and city to the best of his knowledge. That the police chief thinks differently about it and thinks about it 25 years of hard service, makes the top ranks of the police unforgiving, harsh even and unmerciful.”
He continues: “Worse, it makes @POL_DenHaag the kind of employer where you have to be very wary of your managers. The question is also to what extent the excessive diversity policy has played a role in this. There should be at least one newspaper, or @TVwest digging into this. For the time being, this is not the kind of employer you want to risk your head for. This is extremely sad.”
Solms is a member of the police business council and active in the concerned officers' platform
Norbert Solms was also active in the police works council and an active member of it platform concerned officers. Currently ( aug 2024) he is still listed there as a member.
However, that platform also states: “The members of the platform do their work based on their oath of office/promise and the core values of respect, sustainability, freedom and without respect of persons.”. It should therefore only be a matter of time before he is also a member there.
