THE HAGUE, 11/06/03 - Ayaan Hirsi Ali is to be Integration spokesman for the conservatives (VVD) after all. She will take over the portfolio from Stef Blok, who will move to Economic Affairs, parliamentary party secretary Jan Rijpstra announced yesterday.

Evening newspaper NRC Handelsblad previously quoted Hirsi Ali as saying that she "demanded" to be spokesman and wrote that the Somali MP threatened to break away from the VVD if she was not appointed. Hirsi Ali denied that she considered leaving the party, but her position was in doubt.

The VVD could not say whether the interview with NRC Handelsblad had had any influence on giving her the integration spokesmanship. The article did irritate several prominent MPs, but the air was cleared after "A good talk" with parliamentary leader Jozias van Aartsen last Friday, Rijpstra disclosed.

Hirsi Ali exchanged Labour (PvdA) for the VVD last year, because her fierce criticism of Islam was not welcome in the PvdA. She will be supported in the Lower House by MP Arno Visser, the new VVD spokesman for asylum policy. Hirsi Ali's package will also include part of the Social Affairs portfolio, probably Emancipation.