Ginger cat derails serious political interview on Dutch television

Historian Dr Jerzy Targalski was discussing Poland’s Supreme Court crisis when his cat made an appearance

A Polish historian giving an interview on a Dutch news programme was interrupted when his cat climbed on top of his shoulders and rubbed against his face.

Dr Jerzy Targalski was speaking with a journalist from the Dutch public television station Nieuwsuur to discuss "the controversial forced removal of Polish top judge Malgorzata Gersdorf" by the country's ruling conservative party, according to NTR reporter Rudy Bouma.

During the interview, his ginger cat began pawing and mewing at Dr Targalski's right side. The cat then climbed up the professor's arm.

"Eh - we tolerate this?" Dr Targalski asked, as the cat made its way to the professor's shoulders.

Dr Targalski spoke of the presence of secret-police agents in certain countries and what that means for the political transformation of those countries.

As Dr Targalski continued the interview, his cat nuzzled his ear, used his shoulders to get a closer look at a chandelier above and, at one point, curled its tail across his face, covering his eyes. The political scientist, who earned his doctorate with a thesis titled "Mechanisms of dismantling communism in Yugoslavia on the example of Slovenia and Serbia (1986-1991)," brushed the cat's tail away and held it down for several moments to the side of his head.

None of the footage featuring Dr Targalski's cat made into the final Nieuwsuur segment.

However, the cat, called Lisio, did make an appearance in the final cut of the interview that aired last week where he is shown lying on Dr Targalski's lap.

The political scientist is not the first person to have a television interview not go as planned. Last year international relations expert and Pusan National University political-science professor Robert Kelly had his BBC appearance interrupted when his two young children burst into the room during the interview.

Another cat also interrupted a political video interview last year when Dumka – a black cat belonging to Nils Usakovs, the mayor of Riga, Latvia – wandered into an online Q&A session his owner was hosting.

After the video session, Mr Usakov wrote on Facebook: "Anything can happen if your office is ruled by cats."

Washington Post