Wilders: Omtzigt acted “disrespectfully” by leaving Cabinet negotiations by text message

The leaders of the PVV, VVD, and BBB would all like an explanation from Pieter Omtzigt about his NSC’s abrupt withdrawal from the Cabinet formation negotiations on Tuesday. According to Geert Wilders, Omtzigt acted “fairly disrespectfully.” The PVV leader called it “strange that someone who thinks it is so important that we attach great importance to institutions in the new administrative culture would send the [formation talks leader] a text message and then not show up,” Wilders said to NOS.

Ronald Plasterk, the “informant” leading this phase of the government formation talks, invited the leaders of all four parties to a meeting on Tuesday evening to “conclude the talks properly,” he said.

Wilders hopes that Omtzigt will accept Plasterk’s invitation. “We were engaged in good and constructive conversations. I really don’t understand it at all,” Wilders said about the NSC’s departure. According to him, Omtzigt owes the other parties “and also the Netherlands” an explanation.

The PVV leader also said that Omtzigt was taking the coward's route and thereby opening the door to left-wing leader Frans Timmermans (GroenLinks-PvdA). “I don’t think that is in the national interest. Ultimately, the voter wants a center-right Cabinet.”

VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz also thinks that Omtzigt should personally explain to the people he has been meeting with for weeks why he suddenly withdrew with no warning. Yesilgöz said she received a text from Otmzight “after he informed your journalists” about his departure. “I think all kinds of things about that,” she said to the broadcaster on her way to a parliamentary debate on the Ministry of Justice and Security’s budget.

BBB leader Caroline van der Plas told the broadcaster that she was “totally confused” about what happened on Tuesday. She read in the media that Omtzigt would not return to the formation table before she heard from the man himself. “The message was already on the NOS site; we were just reading it, and then we all received a text message.”

Like Yesilgöz and Wilders, Van der Plas hopes the NSC leader will accept Plasterk’s invitation to talk this evening so that he can explain. She called it “very strange that he just left us behind. And that from someone who so desperately wants to keep the rule of law and institutions in tact.”