Final report on failed Cabinet formation attempt delivered to parliament today

Cabinet formation leader Ronald Plasterk will submit his final report to chairman Martin Bosma of the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, on Monday. He will explain how he thinks the Cabinet formation should proceed now that the NSC has pulled out of a potential majority Cabinet with PVV, VVD, and BBB. The Kamer will debate the report on Wednesday.

Plasterk will discuss his findings in the morning with party leaders Geert Wilders (PVV), Dilan Yeşilgöz (VVD), and Caroline van der Plas (BBB). Pieter Omtzigt of NSC was also invited, but he already said last week that, as far as he is concerned, this formation round is over.

After an initial round of exploratory discussions, Plasterk was appointed to lead the formation talks in December. He was instructed to investigate whether the parties' differing views on matters affecting the democratic constitutional state could be bridged. Other important themes like migration, social security, and finances were also discussed.

It is now clear that the right-wing majority Cabinet that the PVV was aiming for will likely not materialize. NSC already had reservations about this and has now made it clear that it sees no possibility for “fruitful cooperation.” The VVD also repeatedly said it only wanted to offer tacit support to this combination.

Little has been released about the content of the conversations in the past two months. Omtzigt only broke the agreed-upon “radio silence” last week. He said he was shocked by an overview of possible financial setbacks that the new Cabinet will have to take into account and immediately left the consultation.

In the run-up to that decision, it had already become clear that the relationship between the party leaders was not good. They bickered on social media between conversations. Still, the remaining negotiators expressed surprise at Omtzigt’s departure and insisted that negotiations were taking place “constructively.”

Far-right polical party PVV was predicted to take 52 seats in the Tweede Kamer were held today, according to polling by Maurice de Hond. That would be 15 more seats than Wilders’ party won in November. At the same time, the NSC would falter, scoring just 11 seats compared to the 20 they won three months ago. The BBB was projected to win eight seats, an increase of one, while the VVD would see its representation in the lower house of Parliament fall by 11 to 13, the lowest total since the mid-1950s.

Over the weekend, the NSC party leadership pledged to deliver its own update on the Cabinet formation process to its members, in which they will more fully explain why they pulled out of formation talks. The meetings for party members will be held on February 16 and February 22 in Zwolle and Breukelen, respectively.