Netherlands: coalition agreement to form a government after nine months of talks

Four Dutch political parties reached an agreement on Monday, December 13, which should allow the Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, to form his fourth government, nearly nine months after the legislative elections in the Netherlands.

This text of the agreement between the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD, center right), Mr. Rutte's party, the Reform Party (D66, center left), the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA, center right) and the Christian Union (CU, Conservatives) will be presented to their respective parliamentary groups on Tuesday, then it will be debated in Parliament on Wednesday.

"The text has been accepted," said a spokesman for Johan Remkes (VVD) and Wouter Koolmees (D66), who were overseeing the negotiations, quoted by the ANP news agency. Television channels NOS and RTL also announced the deal.

The negotiations, which began after the legislative elections in mid-March, will have lasted two hundred and seventy-one days, a new record for the Netherlands after two hundred and twenty-five days without a government in 2017, but still far from the Belgian record of five hundred and forty-one days without a government in office.

“It's a good agreement,” Mr. Rutte told reporters after the talks, while refusing to give further details.

Mr. Rutte, Prime Minister since October 2010, resigned in January because of a scandal related to family allowances, but he continues to manage day-to-day business. He was not disavowed by voters in the March election, won hands down by his party, despite a year marked in particular by a motion of no confidence which he narrowly survived. This ability to emerge unscathed from political crises has earned it the nickname “Teflon”.

With this fourth mandate, Mr. Rutte will become one of the leaders of Europe in power for the longest time, after the Hungarian Viktor Orban, who took office in May 2010, but will however remain far from the sixteen years of Angela Merkel at the head of Germany.

Government formed in January

The Netherlands, faced with a new epidemic wave which has led to unpopular restrictive measures, will however have to wait until January to know their new government, while the coalition distributes the ministries.

Among the expected political announcements, the future coalition is expected to announce an extension of free childcare, billions of euros in investments to fight climate change, housing shortages and nuclear energy research as well as the introduction of road tolls, according to NOS.

Sigrid Kaag, the leader of the D66 party (came second in the elections), should inherit the ministry of foreign affairs, according to the media. She described the new agreement as "pleasant and balanced". Appointed to this function in May, she had resigned in September after being criticized by Parliament for the chaotic management of the evacuation from Afghanistan, and for not having seen signs of an imminent takeover of this country by the Taliban.

The current Minister of Health, Hugo de Jonge, the public face of the fight against Covid-19 in the Netherlands, should not be renewed, however, and his press briefing on Tuesday alongside Mr. Rutte should to be his last in that post. The country has been rocked this year by violent riots in response to health measures taken by the government to curb the surge in the number of Covid-19 cases.