Cabinet formation talks collapsed: Now what?

With the NSC withdrawing from the formation talks with the PVV, VVD, and BBB, the government formation is in danger of having to start from scratch. The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, will decide on the next steps based on advice from formation leader Ronald Plasterk. The two most obvious options are that the PVV, VVD, and BBB will continue to negotiate forming a minority Cabinet, or negotiations will restart with a new variant of parties, AD reports.

Plasterk will meet with the leaders of the four parties again tonight to “conclude the talks properly,” he said. “To be honest, I don’t really understand what exactly Mr. Omtzigt wants.” It seems unlikely that will result in the talks continuing. Omtzigt said his party would tolerate a minority Cabinet at most, and that does not have to be a right-wing Cabinet. Leader Geert Wilders of the largest party, PVV, previously said he’d prefer a typical majority Cabinet.

After Wednesday evening’s discussions, Plasterk will send a report to the Tweede Kamer on what has happened over the past two months and advice on how to proceed. The Kamer will debate the matter and vote on what to do next. The left-wing parties already demanded an urgent debate on the matter.

In previous formations, the Kamer always chose to try negotiating with a second variant after a first failed attempt. Usually, a new scout is appointed to provide advice on which parties should negotiate. If that happens, the next round of talks may be led not by the PVV but by the second largest party, GroenLinks-PvdA. However, there is not much chance that Frans Timmermans will succeed in forming a majority coalition - Timmermans won’t work with the PVV, and the VVD doesn’t want to work with the left-wing combination.

If other coalition variations also fail, the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB may try again. Anything is possible in politics if enough time passes.

The NSC is still open to negotiating a Cabinet but not “in this round,” NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt said on the RTL program Humberto. He did not say which parties he was willing to talk with but hinted that it could be with “another group” and said he still preferred a minority Cabinet.

In a statement, the NSC cited the lack of up-to-date information from the government about the state of its finances as an important reason for its withdrawal from the formation talks. “You’ve been talking about it for weeks. If you don’t even know that the pieces are on the table, there is no foundation.”

Plasterk received letters about the state of the government’s finances between January 23 and 31. Omtzigt said he only found out about those documents on Monday. Too late, he said. Omtzigt stressed that finances are crucial in the negotiations. “The most important question in such a formation is whether there is a prospect of agreement between the parties on finances,” he said. According to him, the documents show the treasury is in worse shape than expected.

“Someone just needs to make it clear how many problems there are with finances. A lot less is possible than we had hoped,” Omtzigt said.

According to NOS, the four parties in the talks have different views on government finances. The VVD and NSC want the government’s books in order, but the BBB and PVV have more difficulty with that. Omtzigt told Humberto that he thinks it irresponsible to make promises that cannot be kept in practice.