Rutte: a personal meeting with Omtzigt soon

Outgoing Prime Minister and VVD leader Rutte will soon have a personal meeting with CDA MP Omtzigt. “I recently had text message contact with him and he is willing to have a conversation,” said Rutte in Nieuwsuur. “But he has to recover a little further before the conversation can take place.”

Rutte especially wants to know where Omtzigt’s anger is, who has been at home sick for some time. The conversation can be important for the course of the cabinet formation. It has largely come to a standstill now, because it is not clear whether potential coalition partners still have confidence in Rutte as prime minister.

Rutte has been under fire since the leakage of scout Ollongren’s notes about another position for Omtzigt. Later it turned out that it was Rutte who had brought up the position of the Member of Parliament, although he said he could not initially remember it.

Released minutes of the Council of Ministers also showed that ministers complained among themselves about critical MPs such as Omtzigt, and that Rutte agreed.

The prime minister said at Nieuwsuur that he wants to regain the confidence of the House, but that he will not become another politician. “I’m not suddenly going to do all kinds of things differently,” he said. “I am proud of the past ten years.”

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