Wilders open to forming minority Cabinet with 3 parties, propped up by VVD
PVV leader Geert Wilders is open to forming a minority coalition with the NSC and BBB, with tacit support from the VVD. But he first wants all four parties to get together and talk, he said that after leaving a meeting with formation scout Ronald Plasterk on Wednesday, NOS reports.
Wilders stressed that the discussion between the four parties would just be to find out what they are about without immediately discussing what form a new Cabinet could take. “It is important that the four pirates come together,” he said.
He added that a minority Cabinet propped up by the VVD is not a taboo for him, but he’d prefer a ruling with a majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament. Wilders would adopt a “reasonable attitude,” and “the willingness to compromises is there,” he said. “But we do want to make the PVV voice heard.
The four parties together hold 88 of the Tweede Kamer’s 150 seats - the PVV has 37, VVD 24, NSC 20, and BBB 7. The VVD already said it wouldn’t be part of the next Cabinet due to the ten seats it lost in this election, but the party would offer tacit support to a center-right coalition.
After her meeting with Plasterk on Wednesday, VVD party leader Dilan Yesilgöz reiterated that her party was open to help make a center-right Cabinet with PVV, NSC, and BBB possible. "We are ready to negotiate the content," she told NOS. However, she did not provide a clear answer about her willingness to participate in the Cabinet. "We prefer to do it from the Tweede Kamer," she said.
She then posted on platform X that her party would be "very willing" to support a coalition of PVV, NSC and BBB from the Tweede Kamer "so that important issues such as reducing migration, building more homes and lower costs for people at home can be arranged."
De kiezer heeft een grote voorkeur uitgesproken voor een centrumrechtse coalitie.
— Dilan Yesilgöz - Zegerius (@DilanYesilgoz) November 29, 2023
Ik heb zojuist de verkenner medegedeeld dat de VVD graag bereid is deze coalitie mogelijk te maken.
De VVD is van harte bereid, vanuit de Kamer, een coalitie van PVV, NSC en BBB te steunen,…
The last meeting with formation scout Plasterk on Wednesday was with NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt.
GroenLinks-PvdA ruling with PVV a “no-go,” Timmermans says
In his meeting with Plasterk, GroenLinks-PvdA leader Frans Timmermans repeated that his party cannot work with the PVV. “That is impossible, a no-go,” he told NOS and other media after the meeting. The left-wing combination cannot govern with a party that “does not respect the Constitution” and “excludes large groups of people,” he said.
Timmermans called it “extremely unlikely” that GroenLinks-PvdA will be part of the next Cabinet. He is, therefore, looking to the future and plans to put up “strong opposition” from the Tweede Kamer, where GL-PvdA will have 25 seats, according to the latest prognosis. The final results are expected in the coming days.
