Johan Remkes may be heading the next state in the formation process.
THE HAGUE--The woman charged with identifying a new Dutch cabinet has said she is concerned about the growing tendency of parties to rule each other out before negotiations begin. Mariëtte Hamer said in her concluding report that there was “broad agreement” between the six parties she spoke with about how to tackle the problems in the Netherlands, but intractable personal and political differences had blocked the way to a new government.
On Wednesday the talks reached an impasse after the two centre-right parties, VVD and CDA, refused to form a coalition with centre-democrat D66 and the two centre-left parties, Labour PvdA and green-left GroenLinks.
Caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte said a five-party coalition ran a risk of being “unstable”. D66, which was in favour of including both PvdA and GroenLinks parties, had earlier ruled out reforming the previous cabinet with the Christian Union because of fundamental differences on medical-ethical issues such as euthanasia and abortion.
Hamer said a minority cabinet of VVD, CDA and D66 was now the most credible option. These three parties have 73 out of 150 seats in the Dutch Parliament’s Second Chamber, although the CDA will lose one of its 19 seats when Pieter Omtzigt, who resigned in June, returns from sick leave this month.
Hamer said efforts to form a majority cabinet had been thwarted by “a limited number of winning parties who can pull the cart, a fragmented Second Chamber and the large number of parties and individuals who have excluded each other. However understandable their reasons may be, the overall outcome is a situation that will not strengthen people’s trust in politics,” she said.
The VVD has named veteran troubleshooter Johan Remkes as its preferred candidate to head the next stage of the negotiations, in which the parties will negotiate a coalition agreement.
Remkes (70) has said he will combine the role with his current post of governor in the province of Limburg. His curriculum vitae includes spells as Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations, King’s Commissioner in Noord-Holland and acting mayor of The Hague.
He acquired the nickname “Mister Stikstof” after heading a commission that drew up rules to limit nitrogen emissions, in the wake of a Council of State’s judgment that the Netherlands was breaching European conservation rules.
