Niels van der Laan, the actor who plays the role of “chief Piet” in the televised news story leading up to the Sinterklaas celebrations on Friday, has been receiving death threats for allegedly implying Sinterklaas is not real, public broadcaster NRT has confirmed.

In one of the episodes of the Sinterklaas Journaal, which films the fictional preparations for the big day, Van der Laan said that in case Sinterklaas did not have time to buy all the presents he needed, parents might step in.

That comment was interpreted as a suggestion that Sinterklaas is not real, leading to several “aggressively formulated” death threats, Sinterklaas Journaal presenter Merel Westrik told talk show host Eva Jinek.

Van der Laan, who has been playing the role of chief Piet for years, was “giving away the secret” around the mainly child-centered celebration, angry commenters said on social media.

The NRT did not want to say if it had reported the threats to police or if any of the other actors had been threatened.

The Sinterklaas celebration has been claimed by right-wing groups in recent years, with their protests centering on the phasing out of the traditional blackface Piets.

Action group Kick out Zwarte Piet shut down its campaigns against the racial stereotyping this year. “If [people] still opt for [the traditional Zwarte Piet] then, well, you can wake up people who are sleeping but you cannot wake up people who are pretending to sleep,” frontman Jerry Afriyie said.