It should not be called a crisis meeting, but the top of the cabinet met on Tuesday evening to find an ‘answer’ to BBB’s election win. This has made visible widespread dissatisfaction among voters, the ministers believe.
Tobias den Hartog, Jan Hoedeman
Latest update:
20:11
A smiling Mark Rutte, how could it be otherwise, who acts as lightly as possible prior to the top meeting: ,,I am confident that we will work it out.” And his interlocutors join in. “This is not a crisis,” said CDA State Secretary Marnix van Rij. And State Secretary Hans Vijlbrief (D66) goes all out: “Why am I here? I don’t know, I was asked. There is no agenda, let’s see why people didn’t vote for us.”
So the line of conversation is this: no tense mood here, mind you.
Marriage contract
Nevertheless, the reason for the consultation at the Ministry of General Affairs is a serious one. Coalition parties VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie lost in the States elections, opponent BBB achieved a mega victory. The questions Tuesday evening – over an Italian buffet – what discomfort exactly heralded that gain? And what now?
In any case, it seems not to immediately break open the coalition agreement. D66 members in particular cling to this. As D66 State Secretary Hans Vijlbrief (D66): “Break open the coalition agreement? No, that’s our prenup.”
Because BBB’s victory does immediately put pressure on nitrogen policy in the provinces. That party does not believe in the need for reduction, while D66 wants to make haste. CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra, penalized in the elections, therefore said earlier that ‘the major files’ really had to be looked at. Read: also to the nitrogen policy. But he didn’t repeat those words so firmly after that. And the parties hastened to say that there was no ‘formal’ request from the CDA to adjust the coalition agreement. No renegotiations and therefore no crisis.
D66 leader Sigrid Kaag puts it this way: “The voter has given a signal and we have to look at that. And there are multiple sources of dissatisfaction.”
Country
Prime Minister and VVD leader Mark Rutte already contributed on Monday: he spoke out loud that more money should go to the countryside. “The models we have in the Netherlands – to distribute money – take little account of the fact that there are also areas where fewer people live on a larger land area.” Think of the number of bus lines, or police cars, schools. That is also an ‘aspect’ that would explain the election results, according to Rutte. Perhaps that is why party leaders Rutte, Hoekstra, Kaag and Carola Schouten (ChristenUnie) allowed some cabinet members with financial baggage to join us.
A first conversation does not have to immediately yield something concrete
So it also applies that through Tuesday evening’s deliberations – the first of a series – the cabinet must try to change course, without immediately starting a fight. There is not really an alternative either: all coalition parties lost in the parliamentary elections, now that parliamentary elections are to be asked for a new beating. So it’s time to buy. And that sounds like this: “An initial conversation does not have to immediately yield something concrete,” says Kaag. The Italian buffet will not be the last supper.
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