D66 wants a "Cabinet of national unity" to take over from remaining coalition parties
Who will run the Netherlands now that less than half of the Schoof I Cabinet is left? The remaining coalition parties, VVD and BBB, want to fill the positions vacated by the recently departed NSC themselves. But the D66 thinks that is a bad idea and wants an emergency Cabinet, a “Cabinet of national unity” filled with “solid administrators,” to take over, the Telegraaf reports.
On Wednesday, parliament will debate the precarious situation facing the Dutch government. The PVV pulled out of the Schoof I Cabinet in early June because the party wanted more asylum measures, and PVV leader Geert Wilders felt that coalition partners VVD, NSC, and BBB were not accommodating enough. This led to the collapse of the Schoof I Cabinet, which has been ruling in a caretaker capacity since. Last week, the NSC also pulled out after NSC Minister Caspar Veldkamp of Foreign Affairs couldn’t get the VVD and BBB to support more measures against Israel.
That leaves only the VVD and BBB in the Schoof I Cabinet, holding only 32 of the 150 seats in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament. They are in talks with nonpartisan Prime Minister Dick Schoof about finding successors for the departed NSC Ministers and State Secretaries from their own ranks.
But the D66 feels that with only 32 seats, the VVD and BBB represent too little of the Dutch population to remain in the driver's seat. Party leader Rob Jetten thinks the two parties should step aside and let a “Cabinet of national unity,” led by Prime Minister Schoof, take over. He wants seasoned administrators like Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (CDA), Winnie Sorgdrager (D66), Kathalijne Buitenweg (GL), and Jan Peter Balkenende (CDA) to step up and keep the country running until after the elections on October 29 and a new Cabinet is formed.
“We have a constitutional crisis,” Jetten told the Telegraaf. “Letting the VVD and BBB fill the empty Cabinet positions is very unwise. It rests on so few seats. People are tired of the bickering; they yearn for a stable government.”
Other opposition parties are also astounded that the VVD, NSC, and BBB couldn’t find common ground on the situation in Gaza and hold on until a new Cabinet could take over. But it is unclear whether Jetten’s proposal will get majority support. With just 32 seats, the VVD and BBB are also not guaranteed to get support for their plan to continue the Cabinet with just the two of them.
And the left-wing parties don’t want the current political situation to detract from the situation in Gaza. The further implosion of the Schoof I Cabinet means that nothing has been resolved on the point of whether the Nehterlands is going to put more pressure on Israel to stop attacking and starving the Gaza Strip.
GroenLinks-PvdA, for example, wants to see whether the VVD is willing to boycott products from illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory or to treat injured Gazan children in the Netherlands.
As of August 24, Israel has killed at least 62,686 people in the Gaza Strip, including at least 18,430 children. At least 157,951 people are injured, Al Jazeera reported based on the latest figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. 289 people in Gaza have starved to death. 115 of them were children and babies. Israel cut off all humanitarian aid to Gaza on March 2 and, despite increasing international pressure, is still not letting in enough food to alleviate the famine it has created.
Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza started as retaliation for a Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on 7 October 2023, in which at least 1,137 people were killed.
