In the March election, the right-wing liberal VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte was once again the strongest force. But he needs at least three other partners to form a government with a majority. So far, however, the possible parties are mutually exclusive.
Hamer had been commissioned by parliament to sound out the possibilities of a new coalition. She had held talks with the leaders of the political groups since May. The core of a new government should be the VVD von Rutte and the left-wing liberal D66 under the leadership of Sigrid Kaag, which surprisingly emerged as the second strongest force in the election. Rutte also wants to work with the right-wing conservative Christian Democrats and the smaller ChristenUnie, while D66 wants to take the left-wing Social Democrats and Greens on board.
It is likely that Rutte and D66 boss Kaag will now be given the task of drawing up the concept of a coalition agreement together. Negotiations on this should then begin in mid-August.
At the beginning of the talks Prime Minister Rutte was in great distress, he only barely survived a vote of no confidence. Rutte had given the impression of wanting to get rid of an uncomfortable critical member of the Christian Democrats. And he had lied in parliament. For that he apologized. Rutte has been the head of government of the Netherlands for more than ten years. The previous coalition negotiations had lasted 225 days – the longest since World War II.