Monday, December 13, 2021
Agreement after 271 days
The Netherlands are about to have a new government
It was the longest coalition negotiations in the country: In March the Dutch elect a new parliament – around nine months later the four ruling parties agree on a coalition agreement. The start of the new government will probably take until next year.
Nine months after the parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, the four-party coalition led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte is about to re-launch: After record marathon negotiations, Rutte’s center-right party VVD, center-left party D66, and the Christian Democratic party came to an agreement CDA and the conservative Christian Union on a coalition agreement, as reported by several Dutch media. For Rutte it is the fourth government under his leadership.
“The text has now been decided,” the ANP news agency quoted a spokesman for the two negotiators Johan Remkes and Wouter Koolmees. The two broadcasters NOS and RTL also reported on the deal. The four parties are expected to present the agreement to their MPs on Tuesday, and it should then go to parliament for debate on Wednesday. It is certain that Rutte will then be tasked with forming the government again. It is possible, however, that his new cabinet will not be sworn in by the king until January.
With a total of 271 days, the coalition negotiations were the longest in the country’s history. The previous record was 225 days: that was how long it took in 2017 until Rutte’s cabinet could be sworn in.
The Netherlands will probably get a new health minister
Former Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag, whose D66 came in second behind Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy in the election in mid-March, had long spoken out against renewed participation by the Christian Union in a coalition. However, at the end of September she gave in. According to the Dutch media, she could become foreign minister again in the new cabinet.
Health Minister Hugo de Jonge, however, will no longer be there. He is blamed by many for the government’s unpopular corona policy. Since the government reintroduced massive corona restrictions in October due to the rapid increase in infections, there have been repeated protests, some of which have been accompanied by violent riots. According to information from the public broadcaster NOS, the new cabinet should, among other things, expand free childcare and announce investments in the billions for combating climate change and the housing shortage as well as for nuclear energy research.
Rutte’s previous government announced its resignation in January due to a child allowance scandal, but remained executive in office. The authorities had wrongly accused thousands of parents of child benefit fraud and, by claiming reimbursements, had put many families in financial need.
Rutte, who has led three coalition governments since 2010, is the second longest-serving head of government in the EU after the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. In the Netherlands, the 54-year-old is also known as the “Teflon Prime Minister” because he has already survived several scandals and votes of no confidence.