‘Cabinet has a lot on its plate’

ANPThe Torentje with the skyline of The Hague

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 19:10

At the Ministry of General Affairs in The Hague, the top of the cabinet has started consultations on the results of the Provincial Council elections of 15 March. Major breakthroughs are not expected tonight; all involved say more meetings are needed to come up with a credible response to the political landslide.

“We will really have to talk about that several times, I estimate,” CDA Deputy Prime Minister Wopke Hoekstra said this morning. His party lost the most of the coalition parties in the elections. After BBB’s big profit, the call for adjustment of the nitrogen policy is particularly loud at the CDA.

The coalition agreement will probably have to be broken up for this, and the CDA will find coalition partner D66 in its path. “The coalition agreement is our marriage contract,” said D66 State Secretary Hans Vijlbrief (Mining) upon arrival.

Hoekstra has State Secretary Marnix van Rij (Taxation) as second in the deliberation. Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the deputy prime ministers all have a fellow party member from the cabinet next to them.

Spring note

Van Rij emphasized this morning that the consultations are not only about relaxing the proposed nitrogen rules. “Asylum and migration is also a theme, just like the climate.”

In addition, the cabinet will soon have to present the annual Spring Memorandum on the state of the country’s finances and the purchasing power of citizens. “In short: the cabinet has a lot on its plate,” said Van Rij.

The result of 15 March shows a lot of distrust among voters against the government’s policy. It will also be very difficult for the coalition to find majorities for bills in the Senate.

Models not good

Yesterday Prime Minister Rutte cautiously anticipated tonight’s talks. He suggested that more support should go to rural areas, because the models on the basis of which the government now distributes money across the country “take little account of sparsely populated areas”.

According to him, this creates “big differences in how people experience being part of the community, of the decisions we make. I’m not saying that’s the only answer to the election result, but it’s an aspect.”

Political reporter Xander van der Wulp:

“Perhaps they can agree in the cabinet about more money for regional plans. But the problem for Rutte IV is much deeper. The essential question is whether they can still solve all those major problems together. The It is not expected that they will be able to give a clear answer to that tonight.”

D66 Deputy Prime Minister Sigrid Kaag reads in the election results that not only many people voted for BBB, but also for other parties “on the left and right” of the cabinet. “What does that mean?” she wants to know.

She also sees a lot of dissatisfaction, but certainly not only in the countryside. “The exclusion, the feeling of marginalization that many people have, in the region or in the city. What can we do about it?”

It is still unclear how long the talks will last tonight. The meeting starts with an Italian buffet, Van Rij reported.

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