Growing uncertainty about coalition’s plans and budget, Schoof as PM

Opposition parties are increasingly uneasy about the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB coalition. The coalition parties are refusing to release an analysis of their coalition agreement, which reportedly shows that the future Cabinet will have multiple legal hurdles to cross to implement the plans therein, some of which are at odds with the Constitution. Opposition parties also have concerns about the choice of Dick Schoof as the new Prime Minister.

On Tuesday, the Volkskrant reported that the Ministry of Home Affairs analyzed the right-wing coalition’s “main lines agreement” in anticipation of the new Ministers, who will have to elaborate the agreement into a detailed government program with concrete measures. The Ministry noted that quite a few proposals will encounter significant legal hurdles, and some are completely at odds with the Constitution.

For example, the coalition’s plan to regulate the supervision of “formal and informal education” - stemming from the right-wing parties’ concerns about Islamic education - conflicts with the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, and freedom of education.

The coalition also wants to see whether it can impose stricter rules on interest groups conducting lawsuits for idealistic reasons. They don’t mention any by name, but according to the Volkskrant, this clearly targets environmental groups like Urgenda and Mobilization for the Environment (MOB) that regularly successfully convince the court that the government should do more to lower emissions and fight climate change. According to the Ministry, making such lawsuits more difficult could conflict with Article 17 of the Constitution, the right to a fair trial.

D66 parliamentarian Joost Sneller took the initiative on Tuesday to request that this analysis be released to parliament - a request that requires a majority and, therefore, the support of at least one coalition party. Sneller had counted on the NSC, because party leader Pieter Omtzigt has always been known for his demands for full transparency from Ministers. However, the NSC quickly announced that it saw no need for the official analysis to be made public.

That is worrying, Sneller said. “We know that NSC as a party wants to strengthen the position of parliament. The main lines agreement even states that parliament’s right to information, Article 68 of the Consitution, must be strengthened,” he told the Volkskrant. He called it noteworthy that the NSC was the first party not to support the request for transparency.

Schoof as Prime Minister

Pro-diversity party DENK is very concerned about Dick Schoof as the Netherlands next Prime Minister. DENK leader Stephan van Baarle told NOS he was “not happy” and “strongly opposed” to Schoof’s nomination. He pointed out that, under Schoof’s leadership, the intelligence service AIVD secretly monitored mosques and other Islamic organizations, and the NCTV considered Muslims a potential threat instead of citizens like everyone else.

DENK wants clarification on whether Schoof was involved in illegally monitoring Islamic organizations. “By putting such a person forward, you send the signal that you do not take the concerns that Dutch Muslims have seriously.”

On the completely other side of the political spectrum, FvD leader Thierry Baudet also brought up Schoof’s past position leading the anti-terrorism agency NCTV. Under Schoof’s leadership, the NCTV used fake accounts to follow citizens on social media, Baudet said. “The Netherlands voted for Geert Wilders, and we get a former PvdA official who has been spying on people for years.”

Frans Timmermans, leader of the largest opposition party, GroenLinks-PvdA, was neutral about Schoof’s nomination. He was a member of the PvdA, but that was “quite a few years ago,” Timmermans said. “What it says above all is that there was apparently no one to be found in the PVV pool.” He described Schoof as a “very loyal and dedicated civil servant.”

JA21 MP Joost Eerdmans is more enthusiastic, calling Schoof a “good guy” with “good papers.” He knows Schoof from his time working at the Ministry of Justice. “A very good civil servant. It remains to be seen whether he is also a good politician.”

SP leader Jimmy Dijk is just happy that someone has been chosen for the Prime Minister Job. “Finally!” he said. “We will judge it on the quality and content and not on the figure.”