The Dutch resigning Prime Minister Mark Rutte wants to “seriously look” at a coalition with JA21, the new party consisting of former members of Thierry Baudets Forum for Democracy (FVD). Rutte said this after a conversation with scouts Kajsa Ollongren and Annemarie Jorritsma. But D66 leader Sigrid Kaag finds ruling with that party “difficult to imagine”. Her party is diametrically opposed to the former FVD’ers when it comes to important issues such as the climate and the European Union.
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Rutte and Kaag were the first party leaders to visit the scouts this morning to tell them what their wishes are for a new coalition.
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“We would like to participate,” said Rutte. D66, which won 24 seats, would, according to him, be a logical participant in the cabinet. “Then the next thing we would really like to join is the CDA. That is our first preferred partner anyway. “According to Rutte, it will then be” a bit of a search “to arrive at a majority. He seriously wants to look at JA21, which won three seats, but says he is not familiar with the party.
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Rutte also does not rule out a variant with the ChristenUnie (5 seats), a continuation of the current government. “We really should take a serious look at that, we worked very well with it.”
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Progressive or Conservative Coalition?
For her part, Kaag did not want to say much more about how D66 thinks about those options. But she did hint that she is not eager to join a cabinet with several conservative parties. During the election campaign, she said she was mainly looking for a progressive cabinet. She emphasized this again after her visit to the scouts. D66 was the big winner of last week’s elections.
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Furthermore, the D66 leader does not want to name any names. She especially emphasizes that she wants to look for parties that “will identify themselves on the basis of the content”. She wants parties to join the themes with which D66 has campaigned: “That means enormous attention for investments in education, knowledge and science. Tackling the climate crisis. Strengthening the rule of law.”
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Wilders also wants to rule
PVV leader Geert Wilders for his part would like to join a cabinet with VVD, CDA, PVV, Forum for Democracy and JA21. Wilders calls this cabinet, which would consist of the most right-wing parties in the Netherlands, ‘center-right’.
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The PVV leader hopes that the parties will “retrace their steps” from the statement that they exclude the PVV in advance from government participation. He himself prefers a cabinet without D66, he says. “Does it make sense for that to happen? Maybe not.” Wilders also does not think it makes sense to exclude a party like the PVV “just like that”. “I think such a center-right cabinet would be very good for the Netherlands.”
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On election night, Wilders, who had to hand in three seats with seventeen seats, seemed to resign himself to going into the opposition. “I think there is no room for us in the coalition,” he said at the time.
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