Klaas Dijkhoff, leader of the parliamentary faction of the ruling VVD party, announced that he is leaving the Roman Catholic Church in a critical open letter addressed to Archbishop Wim Eijk . "I choose love and people instead of the restrictions and the church", Dijkhoff wrote. The letter was written in response to an interview Eijk gave to the Gelderlander newspaper about the Catholic Church disappearing from the Netherlands. In it the archbishop explicitly mentioned Dijkhoff, implying that he is responsible for churches closing. Dijkhoff claims that the archbishop distorted his words.