Eleven soots and a Black Pete in the first news of Sinterklaas

The first capture: up to eleven soots. In the first Sinterklaas journalaal this year, Monday night, only soot specimens came on the scene. There are ten new pieten and the Hoofdpiet – a novelty: it has a reddish mustache. Another novelty: a lot of women. These new people have to get used to it a bit, so they recover the gifts from their packaging and have to throw up because of seasickness. It is then that the liner is still on land in Spain. This is also a concern because the entrance is already Saturday in Zaanstad.

With the beginning of the TV program, the season Sinterklaas is open, with the corresponding debate on Zwarte Piet. On Monday morning, about 30 anti-pedestrian protesters briefly blocked the Mediapark bridge in Hilversum, in protest against Sinterklaas news . Tuesday morning, a brief court order of the militant foundation Majority Perspective against the broadcaster NTR, the State of the Netherlands and some other parties to prevent the entry of Sinterklaas Saturday

Activists struggle to abolish the folk figure because it would be a racist caricature. Others, however, fiercely defend Zwarte Piet as a national heritage. Given that Sinterklaas journaal and the accompanying television entry are decisive, the program was found at the center of the debate. For both parties, the children's program also includes black chalk. This does not satisfy any of the parties.

Read also: No, Zwarte Piet does not disappear from the Sinterklaas journaal

Earlier this month, it was announced that news from Sinterklaas would continue with pure soot. Several media had concluded this from a statement by the broadcaster NTR, in which the existing policy of extremely gradual change was explained. Later, a spokesman for the NTR created further confusion by stating that everyone in the program was in soot, including the blacks. It depends on the number of times they have gone through the chimney.

To show in advance that the set does not consist of pure soot this year, in the second scene, Huispiet appears with a vacuum cleaner and a joke, clean up the mess of soot. De Huispiet, one of the oldest in the world, is completely painted in black or dark brown.

All that said nothing, TV makers are happy to put the viewer on the wrong track. Prediction: Huispiet is not alone.