Kaag: Rutte IV “not born under favorable circumstances"

Outgoing Minister of Finance Sigrid Kaag has said that the Cabinet which collapsed in July had problems from the start. "There were blockades back and forth," Kaag said Friday evening in the radio program Met het Oog op Morgen, in which she looked back at the long coalition formation process of 2021 and 2022.

The coalition that led to the Fourth Cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, consisting of VVD, D66, CDA, and ChristenUnie, lasted 299 days. "It took too long," Kaag said. "There was talk of ‘metal fatigue’ between the parties from Rutte III." It was also the four same parties in that earlier Cabinet together. "You can't continue on in the same composition," Kaag concluded afterward.

I always thought the Cabinet was not born under favorable circumstances," the outgoing minister said to the radio program. "It had taken too long; it was tough. When I look back, we were all tired and exhausted before we even started the Cabinet."

Shortly after forming the Cabinet, "the war in Ukraine came along," and the Netherlands struggled with "sky-high inflation," Kaag adds. Despite these "big problems," Rutte IV also achieved a lot, according to the outgoing minister, "although that has never really come under the spotlight."

Kaag has "naive hope" that people also see what "went right" when the outgoing Cabinet leaves office.