Column | Frans Timmermans – NRC

We were in Nijmegen with a camera crew, we ate in the ready -made eatery on Tooropstraat. The establishment radiated the better neighborhood feeling in everything. It was nice to be there. The people were there social and friendly, but also just. At the back of the case was a man who was so much like Frans Timmermans that he had to be Frans Timmermans. I had the interview with him NRC read. De Ankeiler: ‘Today you are the roast rooster, tomorrow the bantam chicken’ had lingered.

Was it for him or not? We just kept looking at him. Sometimes he looked back, then he nodded back nasty, in a French carpenter -like way. It was not entirely unthinkable that he was really French Timmermans. Nijmegen-Oost seemed like a neighborhood where he could at least be at ease, nobody would be living here. If I were Frans Timmermans and I was in Nijmegen then I would also eat ready for Kladkaar. He was talking to a woman of his own age. She was wearing a slightly too cheerful flower dress, that is one of the memories that I left at my student days in Nijmegen: the happier the dress, the more serious the conversations. A roommate always wore a dress with a sunflower motif, years later I heard that she had jumped from a mountain in Switzerland. « Or perhaps pushed, » it was told hissing.

In any case, it was a serious conversation, sometimes they folded their hands at the same time and nodded with their heads. After three Swinkels beer I walked to Frans Timmermans to ask if he was really Frans Timmermans. I myself hate people who approach me and ask if I am Marcel van Roosmalen. I often deny that. In the meantime I stood at the table of Frans Timmermans, he just baptized a piece of bread in a pan of cheese fondue.

I asked.

He in vocal Nijmegs: « Who, tell you? »

She against him: « Frans Timmermans of the PvdA, who also has such a beard. And your glasses. »

He: « Do I look like that? »

I trampled back to the table.

« It’s not he, » I said. « And they also think he doesn’t look like Frans Timmermans. »

We settled, outside they sat on benches enjoying the setting sun, everyone was friendly, I looked inside again. Frans Timmermans and the woman waved in the flower dress, it seemed as if the campaign had begun. His face remained in the fold. For a moment I did not conclude that I will vote for Frans Timmermans in the next elections,

Marcel van Roosmalen Writes a column on Monday and Thursday.

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