Climate, social equality also behind collapse of govt formation talks: Green leader

While the topic of asylum deals with North African countries was the final straw for GroenLinks, it was not the only reason behind the party's decision to withdraw from the government formation negotiations with VVD, D66 and CDA, GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver said in an interview with the Volkskrant. The party also saw no room for negotiations on climate and social inequality.

After the decision to withdraw, Klaver was flooded with reactions from his followers. According to him, they split into two rough groups. "One: great that you stick to your principles and stand straight. Two: why did it break on immigration, while you could maybe win a lot on other files?" Klaver said to the Volkskrant.

"Then my question is: what files? When it comes to climate: we did not reach the final stage of negotiations, but I did not feel at any moment that we would reach the goals of the Paris Agreement. Not by a long shot." Klaver said. "I also did not see a compromise in the socio-economic field."

According to Klaver, they negotiations focused a lot on dropping the bonus limit on bans so that post-Brexit banks would like to move from London to the Netherlands. "That's the exact opposite of what we want. So we said, we won't do that. The others found that strange." They felt it logical that the Netherlands wants to attract the business of the banks. "But that's not logical! You want to deal with the discontent in the country and the first thing you do is give bankers more rewarding bonuses. We don't want this kind of bank boys and girls."

"Ultimately the formation revolved around the question: are you making the policy a bid less bad or a bit better? It threatened to be the first."