The nationalist right led by Geert Wilders successfully concluded this Monday (1st) the formation of a government in the Netherlands, in coalition with three other right-wing parties, which will have as Prime Minister Dick Schoof, with a technocratic profile and specialist in security and asylum, leading a team of ministers with political experience.
According to the report presented to Parliament this Monday, the future government will have 15 ministers and, despite the initial promise that half would be made up of technocrats, ultimately all cabinet members come from politics: five from the right-wing nationalist PVV of Wilders, four from the liberal VVD, four from the Christian Democrat NSC and two from the peasant BBB.
The new Dutch cabinet, which will not include Wilders or leaders of the other three parties, will spend the next two months focusing on detailing its programme after taking office on Tuesday, ending nearly 14 years in office under liberal Mark Rutte, who is stepping down to take up the post of NATO secretary general in October.
The report, presented by mediator Richard van Zwol, highlights that the future government’s program “will be presented to the States General in time for Budget Day”, on Tuesday, September 17, and will also be “dedicated to legislative quality and viability of political and legislative proposals” that the initial agreement includes in general terms.
The document, which does not offer much information about how the government pact will be implemented, emphasizes that the planned cuts to public servants will be made in a “responsible and enforceable manner” and “special attention will be given to the importance of an adequate supervision regime (inspections) and an adequate network of missions abroad”.
The four parties included in the agreement a 22% reduction in public services, which alarmed many ministries, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which fears the closure of embassies.
Earlier this morning, the new team of ministers formally met for the first time in what is called a “constitutive meeting”, under the leadership of Schoof and Van Zwol.
Fleur Agema (PVV) said she was “very proud” to be the future Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health in the “most right-wing” cabinet in Dutch history, albeit with “a warm social heart”. “I will take care of it,” she said.
Her PVV colleague Marjolein Faber, who will be in charge of the new Ministry of Migration and Asylum, spoke of “a historic day” for the Netherlands and stressed that she did not want to “look back, only forward”.
Van Zwol will meet with Dutch King Willem-Alexander today and introduce him to Schoof, ahead of the government’s inauguration on Tuesday (2).
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