VVD leader Yeşilgöz doesn't want to work with GroenLinks-PvdA in next coalition

VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz does not want to form a coalition with Frans Timmermans’ GroenLinks-PvdA after the elections. She “doesn’t see it happening,” the VVD leader said on talk show RTL Tonight on Monday evening. She’d prefer a center-right Cabinet without the PVV.

The talk show hosts repeatedly pressed Yeşilgöz to say in so many words that the VVD is ruling out a coalition with GroenLinks-PvdA. “I really don’t see that working,” she said. “I’m being quite blunt here; that’s pretty clear. I don’t want that, because I think this country is hungry for center-right policies.”

Earlier, Yeşilgōz ruled out governing with the PVV again. “We’re not going to work with him anymore,” she said about PVV leader Geert Wilders in an interview with the Telegraaf in June. She called him an “Incredibly unreliable partner.”

Shortly after the Schoof I Cabinet’s collapse, Timmermans did not rule out teaming up with the VVD completely, but did say the party would first have to take a step to the left. According to Timmermans, the liberal party had become too much like the far-right PVV to make working with GroenLinks-PvdA possible.

The VVD is not doing well in the polls, with Yeşilgöz in particular rapidly losing support. The liberal party, that’s been in every coalition since 2010, dropped eight seats from 23 to 15 in EenVandaag’s poll last week. The VVD is out of the top three parties for the first time in years.

Voters are critical of Yeşilgöz herself and of the developments in the Schoof I Cabinet, which collapsed when the PVV pulled out in June and then collapsed further when the NSC also departed last month. VVD voters are also divided on the party's course, with some thinking the party has moved too far to the right and others criticizing the decision to exclude the PVV from future cooperation.