With 226 days on Friday, these are the longest coalition negotiations in the country’s history. And there is no end in sight. Four parties are currently negotiating the continuation of the previous coalition under the leadership of the right-wing liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
The longest coalition negotiations to date to form Rutte’s third cabinet lasted a total of 225 days in 2017. The neighboring country of Belgium set a worldwide record in coalition negotiations: in 2010/2011 it took the parties there 541 days until the government was in place.
On March 17th, the Dutch elected a new parliament. The winners were the right-wing liberal VVD von Rutte and the left-wing liberal D66. Both parties had formed a coalition with the Christian Democratic CDA and the ChristenUnie since 2017. But the substantive discussions only started this week. At the beginning, Rutte said that he did not expect quick success: “There is also a lot to do,” he said.
The probes had been bogged down for months. After political affairs, which were mainly blamed on Rutte’s VVD and the CDA, D66 wanted a change of leadership and advocated a five-party coalition with the Social Democrats and the Greens. But right-wing liberals and Christian Democrats blocked that. New elections could only be prevented because D66 had given up the blockade and agreed to continue the previous coalition.