Omtzigt does not want to govern with the PVV, ‘only with parties that uphold the rule of law’

ANPL list leader Pieter Omtzigt of New Social Contract

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 13:18

Pieter Omtzigt maintains that he does not want to join a government with the PVV. In the TV program Buitenhof he said that the party’s positions “touch the rule of law” and that he has great difficulty with that.

Omtzigt said that he wants to govern with his New Social Contract party “especially with parties that leave the rule of law intact” and, as far as he is concerned, the PVV is not one of them. “I haven’t exactly seen that in recent years.”

The fact that party leader Geert Wilders said yesterday in De Telegraaf that the PVV has lost its “sharp edges” does not change that as far as he is concerned. Nor did the PVV leader make a “strong appeal” to Omtzigt in the article not to exclude him.

Omtzigt did not want to say in so many words whether he was excluding the PVV, but he did make it clear that he has little interest in forming a coalition with Wilders.

‘Minimum wage not to 18 euros’

He will release the list of candidates around October 1 and the election program will follow at the end of October, he said in Buitenhof. It will state, for example, that the minimum wage will be increased, “but not immediately to 18 euros”, as the Christian Union wants.

Omtzigt emphasizes that an increase in the minimum wage is not the only thing that needs to be done to increase social security. He believes that all facilities that people need, such as food, housing and energy, should remain “affordable and accessible”.

To achieve this, he wants to sweep through “a whole series of tax cuts that make no sense”. He mentioned as an example a significant tax discount for expats. “That completely ruins the rental market in Amsterdam, because someone else can pay much less.”

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