Prime Minister ordered to vacate Torentje within a month over fire hazard

Prime Minister Dick Schoof can’t keep working in the Torentje, the Prime Minister’s office at the Ministry of General Affairs on the Binnenhof, until the end of the year. The municipality of The Hague prohibited the continued use of the parts of the Binnenhof that are not yet being renovated because the fire hazard is too great.

The Ministry of General Affairs, which falls under the Prime Minister and is one of the only buildings on the Binnenhof still in use, has four weeks to move out. The same goes for the Central Government Real Estate Agency. If they don’t vacate their premises in that time, they’ll be fined 100,000 euros per week, up to a maximum amount of 1 million euros.

Prime Minister Schoof and his officials were supposed to move to the Ministry of Home Affairs and later to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. That has not happened yet because the digital security at Home Affairs is not up to the standards of protecting State secrets. Confidential conversations by the Prime Minister must be untappable.

The Hague Mayor Jan van Zanen acknowledged that the digital risk is real. “But the physical safety of people on and around the Binnenhof complex always comes first,” he said.

The Binnenhof, the political heart of the Netherlands located in The Hague, is currently undergoing major renovations. The other residents, including parliament, the Senate, and several Ministries, moved out in 2021. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2028 at the earliest. The price tag is currently estimated at around 2 billion euros.