Condolences extended by European Council President Charles Michel to Iran following President Ebrahim Raisi’s death have upset many Dutch parliamentarians.
In one of the earlier reactions to the disaster, Mr. Michel tweeted: "The EU expresses its sincere condolences for the death of President Raisi and Foreign Minister Abdollahian, as well as other members of their delegation and crew in a helicopter accident."
"Our thoughts go to the families," he added in a message on X (formerly Twitter), hours after the two Iranian government officials and seven other people died in a helicopter crash in north-western Iran during bad weather on Sunday.
His message was not to the liking of a number of Dutch members of parliament.
“Not on my behalf,” tweeted Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right PVV party, a member of the governing coalition in the Netherlands.
Ruben Brekelmans of the VVD noted Michel’s omission of the numerous victims of Tehran’s regime, the ongoing detention of a Swedish EU diplomat, and arms provision to Russia. He said he believed the Council president totally missed the mark.
Jan Paternotte of the D66 party felt that the speed with which Mr. Michel expressed his condolences on behalf of the European Union was “entirely inappropriate,” given the many victims of Raisi and his regime.
“Scandalous, inappropriate, inadequate,” commented Jimmy Dijk, leader of the Dutch socialist party SP.
Political responses to Raisi’s death across Europe were initially sparse. France, which expressed “condolences to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and Italy, whose Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, expressed “solidarity with the Iranian government and people” were among the early respondents.
One of the strongest messages came from Poland, whose president, Andrzej Duda, said on social media that he was “deeply shaken.” He added that few countries have such tragic pages in their history like the Polish Airforce Flight 101 crash in Smolensk, Russia, in 2010 - in which 90 people died, including then Polish President Lech Kaczynski. As a result, Poles join the Iranian victims’ families and the Iranian people “in prayer and sorrow,” Duda said.
NATO spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah also expressed condolences, on behalf of the Atlantic Alliance, to the Iranian people.
However, as the news of the disaster spread, more states, including India, the United States, Sudan and dozens of others, joined in offering their condolences.
