Hi Geert Jan, how are you really on this first day?
“Well, if it didn’t feel like the first day. Not long after yesterday’s preview, the deal around Sweden was closed. And I should have foreseen that. Yesterday evening I was having a drink with two Dutch journalist colleagues when suddenly the President Charles Michel of the European Council passed by shortly afterwards, with his wife on his arm. We were really amazed and so we decided to do some research. It turned out that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and NATO head Jens Stoltenberg had a meeting that evening. And in the pause of that conversation, Erdogan and Michel seem to have met. That’s when the deal was probably done, and I didn’t expect it. Suddenly there was news. So today doesn’t really feel like day one to me. Before the second day. From a journalistic point of view, however, it was incredibly interesting, but also overwhelming. I was actually short of eyes and ears but what an experience. We are not talking about a farmer’s Monday in Nijkerk, but about a very serious NATO summit.
To your great pleasure?
Sure, but I couldn’t bring myself to smile until I met Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir. She is looking so fun and happy. I saw it before speaking with Mark Rutte, I was also present in the press box just before. Tonight I also saw her at the Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda’s dinner. The news was able to follow the arrivals of the heads of state at that dinner, and we actually played a little game of ranking NATO leaders and judging attendees on its RTL Boulevards. So no normal meat inspection, but “nice suit, weird tie”.’
So all right, how nice!
Yes, except that all the big news were actually released at the same time. At some point there was chaos due to the huge flow of information. In principle, there is nothing more entertaining for journalists than a lot of news, which gives a lot of energy and adrenaline. But at one point we were filled with an interview with Mark Rutte, as we see on a screen that Stoltenberg presents a communiqué and that Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, who arrived today, makes a speech elsewhere in Vilnius. Rutte also turned out to be unaware of the press release just presented, so the interview could actually end up in the bin.
Also a pity
Yes, except that he said the word ‘fuck’ in the interview, which garnered a lot of international media attention. Reuters and AFP, among others, asked me if they could use it and in what context he said it. So Rutte’s “fuck” is almost all over the world.