A breakdown of seats in the new Dutch Second Chamber of Parliament, which was based on 88 per cent of the vote being counted.
THE HAGUE--The leaders of the seventeen parties which won seats in Wednesday’s general election met Chairperson of the Dutch Parliament’s Second Chamber Khadija Arib on Thursday afternoon, and agreed that Annemarie Jorritsma of the ruling VVD and Kajsa Ollongren of centrist D66 should start off coalition formation talks as joint “verkenners”, or scouts.
The verkenner’s role is to establish what the most likely coalition would be. Afterwards, an informateur puts together the details and, once that process has been completed, the formateur – usually the leader of the biggest party – puts a cabinet together.
The entire process can take months and speculation is rife about which parties could join the VVD, D66 and possibly Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). Together, the three parties are just short of a majority.
The last cabinet took a record-setting 225 days to be installed.
Christian Union (CU), which is part of the outgoing coalition, would seem the obvious choice but may not suit D66 because of its stance on medical and ethical issues, insiders say.
Labour party PvdA leader Lilianne Ploumen made it clear before the election that PvdA would not join a cabinet as the only left-wing party. She told reporters on Thursday she saw “no reason” to change that position.
Jorritsma and Ollongren are to report back to Parliament at the end of the month, when the new Parliament is due to be sworn in.
Leader of far-right Forum for Democracy FvD Thierry Baudet, who avoided commenting to the press on Wednesday evening about his party’s major gains, told reporters that he expected to be received at the coalition talks table with “open arms.”
“We are the biggest winner in the election and the biggest winner can take the initiative, so it will be exciting,” he said. Most parties already ruled FvD out as a potential partner, but these pre-election promises are “no longer worth anything,” Baudet said.
Caroline van der Plas, leader of newcomer Farmer-Citizen Movement BBB, which won one seat, turned up at the parliamentary complex on a tractor. She wants to see the establishment of a new Ministry for Rural Affairs, which should be located at least 100 kilometres away from The Hague, and have its “feet in the mud.”
