Opposition angry over coalition’s refusal to debate election results

ANPgroup chairmen Paternotte (D66) and Hermans (VVD) with Van der Plas

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 16:40

In the House of Representatives, there has been a serious clash between the government parties and the entire opposition. GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver, with the support of all other opposition parties, requested a debate on the remarkable result of last Wednesday’s elections. But VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie were against.

Because the coalition parties occupy 77 of the 150 seats and therefore have a narrow majority, the request was rejected, to the anger of the opposition parties.

According to them, it is important to debate the result, because the enormous profit of the BBB of Caroline van der Plas has major consequences for the balance of power in politics in The Hague. The parties want to know from the government, among other things, how it intends to find majorities in the Senate, now that the coalition no longer has a majority there.

Recover from the thump first

But the governing parties said they prefer to reflect internally on the election results and that the voter’s message can of course be discussed in all other debates on various topics. But they mainly want to “recover from the blow” first.

This explanation provoked fierce reactions from the opposition parties. Member of Parliament Stephan van Baarle van Denk told the coalition parties that the results showed once again that many voters have distrust of politics. According to him, the fact that debates such as these are blocked is precisely one of the reasons for this distrust.

In order to allow the debate to continue, Klaver has now requested a roll call vote on his proposal. This will take place at 7 p.m., and then all MPs present must personally indicate whether they are for or against the debate. Because not all MPs are often present, there is a chance that the debate proposal will still receive a majority.

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