PM Schoof scores 59% approval, but a third of coalition voters are worried

A majority of respondents surveyed last week by RTL Nieuws said they were happy with the job Prime Minister Dick Schoof has done roughly 75 days after taking office. However, nearly a third of voters who supported either the PVV, VVD, NSC or BBB at the polls in November are displeased their party has joined the governing coalition.

The questions were offered in anticipation of Prinsjesdag, the annual date when the Cabinet releases its proposal for the following year’s budget. Schoof’s Cabinet distributed their draft plan on Tuesday, which has been criticized for increasing the deficit while being shortsighted.

Around 59 percent said they were positive about Schoof’s performance thus far, but 43 percent admitted they still missed former Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Schoof is the first new prime minister in 14 years. Tuesday also marked the first time the budget was submitted by a nonpartisan prime minister since the Second World War.

While a majority of the coalition parties' voters are happy with the coalition, many are also concerned. Specifically, 43 percent of NSC voters are not happy with the state of affairs, and neither are 36 percent of VVD voters.

About 76 percent of PVV voters still support the coalition, as well as 83 percent of BBB voters. However, the latter lost an enormous amount of support between the Provincial Council elections in March 2023 and the Tweede Kamer election in November 2023.

Dutch residents' confidence in the government has increased in the last two years. However, a majority still believe that things are going badly in the Netherlands. The NOS reported this after its own annual Budget Day survey, which Ipsos I&O conducted for the media company.

The RTL Nieuwspanel survey also took place before the budgets were released. However, many of the plans, including details about purchasing power improvements and the possible use of emergency powers to limit asylum access to the Netherlands, had already been leaked.

Panel results also showed that 75 percent of all the voters asked were enthusiastic about the asylum and migration measures set to be implemented.

Fleur Agema of the PVV scored the highest among the Deputy Prime Ministers in the survey. Around 34 percent think that Agema is doing a reasonable or good job. This number is much higher among PVV voters, with 60 percent of them giving a positive opinion about Agema.