The remaining coalition parties want to prevent ‘administrative stagnation’. ‘The Netherlands must continue’

Outgoing Prime Minister Dick Schoof tried to save on Wednesday morning what could be saved. As far as he is concerned, the cabinet trap was unnecessary. Now that that is a fact, a request made a request to the House of Representatives not to explain four important themes controversially – so that the outgoing cabinet can still work with this.

Those were for him: the trade war, the national budget, national and international security and the recovery operations of Groningen and the allowances. « The last thing we can use now is a delay and yet this will now be inevitable on some subjects. »

It is not due to coalition parties VVD and BBB, they emphasized themselves. VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz said this Wednesday in the debate about the cabinet trap that she hopes that the agreements from the outline agreement will remain intact. « The Netherlands must continue, » said Caroline van der Plas.

But now that the PVV has left the cabinet and the cabinet is outgoing, it is not at all certainly to what extent it can continue. It is customary that a fallen cabinet is reluctant and especially ‘fits on the store’. Only with problems that cannot wait can a outgoing cabinet usually continue.

Asylum laws

In the coming weeks, the House of Representatives must officially determine which subjects are declared controversial or not. But this Wednesday appears to be enough support on a number of large subjects, first of all thanks to the « constructive » Christian parties SGP, CU and CDA.

These parties are extra important, now that a BBB senator was switching to D66 this week. As a result, the CDA and the SGP are needed for a right -wing majority or a Christian majority in the Senate.

The most discussed topic in the debate on Wednesday: the asylum laws of former minister Marjolein Faber (PVV), who will soon have to be guided by the parliament by another minister. Although this is one of the most controversial bills, it can count on enough support for treatment. SGP’er Chris Stoffer made his mission to collect majorities for the asylum laws of former minister Faber. Wilders also said he would continue to support the laws.

The CDA also wants to deal with Faber’s laws. CDA party leader Henri Bontenbal said that his party is « constructive in the game ». But that does not mean automatic support, he warned. The Council of State had considerable criticism of the bills. Partly for this reason, the party intends to submit improvement proposals for the asylum laws. CDA does not want to get on ‘the populist route’.

CDA and SGP also like to see the cabinet continue with defense, housing and nitrogen. « The outgoing cabinet must be given the space to tackle these urgent problems, » said Stoffer. The ChristenUnie also emphasized that they would like to support defense spending, and are part of the ‘cheerful Christian coalition’.

The fact that the parties call Defense has to do with the NATO summit that will be held this month in The Hague. There, NATO member states decide how much the defense must be issued. That is more complicated with Geert Wilders (PVV) than the asylum laws. The Netherlands is expected to spend a lot of extra on Defense in the coming years, in the long term 16 to 19 billion euros per year. Wilders wanted the cabinet to spend the same amount of money on people with a low income.

But for the subject of Defense, the cabinet has broad support in the Chamber, including opposition party GroenLinks-PvdA. As far as party leader Frans Timmermans is concerned, this cabinet must continue with topics of national and international security. « We want to move forward, fast forward. »

Campaign

On Wednesday, for example, it turned out that there was a chance that the House of Representatives will decide to leave most of the topics open to debate. That was also under Rutte IV, where the cabinet de facto still strongly reigned during the outgoing period. The old tradition of ‘Fitting on the store’ as a outgoing cabinet seems to have been broken in recent years, now that more and more cabinets are not serving their full time and formation periods last a long time.

After the fall of Rutte IV, almost two years ago, there was a broad feeling in society that the cabinet had to continue, because the country seemed to stand still for some time.

Another statement that was mentioned in 2023 after the previous fall: many political parties want to profile themselves in campaign time. Then it is useful to keep those topics on the agenda. Even now that seems the case.

The tradition of ‘fitting on the store’ as a outgoing cabinet seems to be broken, now that more and more cabinets are not doing their time

In any case, the parties are good to show that they want to get things done. The reproach of the opposition is that the Netherlands has stopped in recent months. In order to explain important topics controversial, it goes directly to the point that many opposition parties want to make: let us rule, we do solve the problems.

The first moment when opposition parties can leave their mark on policy (or to adjust unwanted plans) is the treatment of the spring memorandum next week. The House of Representatives can search for possibilities to adjust the plans and take an advance on the Budget Memorandum to be made in August and September.

The other coalition parties NSC, BBB and VVD also emphasize that the cabinet trap has not been due to them. They like to make a point of preventing administrative ‘standstill’.

The current composition of the House of Representatives can also feel as a last chance. For example, Yesilgöz announced that he wanted to use the period up to the elections to continue ‘right policy’, she said on Tuesday in various TV programs.

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