Coalition negotiations to start with only D66, CDA; Official report later today
It appears that the serious negotiations about forming a coalition government will start with only the D66 and CDA. If they can find enough common ground, they’ll try to engage other parties, insiders told NOS.
Wouter Koolmees, who led the first phase of the formation process, mapping out which parties are willing to work with whom and under what conditions, said on Monday that his task was “an interesting puzzle, but complicated to solve.” He blamed this on various parties putting up obstacles, referring to the VVD refusing to work with GroenLinks-PvdA, and various parties refusing to work with the far-right parties FvD and PVV.
Koolmees will send his official report to the president of the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, on Tuesday evening. Koolmees declined to say whether he managed to solve the puzzle. “It remains to be seen whether it’s worked.”
According to NOS’s insiders, it didn’t. The negotiations on a coalition agreement will start with only the D66 and CDA. The two big winners in the parliamentary elections hold 26 and 18 seats in the Tweede Kamer, respectively, a total of 44. To achieve a majority, the coalition needs 76 of the 150 seats.
Both D66 leader Rob Jetten and CDA leader Henri Bontenbal said on Monday that they are ready to start negotiating a coalition agreement. The hope is that these discussions can break the impasse that the formation process seems to have reached.
Jetten said after the D66’s election victory that he would prefer a broad-center coalition with his party, the VVD, GroenLinks-PvdA, and CDA. But VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz made clear that her party would not be budged on its refusal to work with the left-wing GroenLinks-PvdA.
Throughout the campaign, she hammered on a center-right coalition with the VVD, D66, CDA, and JA21. But the D66 is not keen on that. According to Jetten, the differences between his party and Joost Eerdman’s tending-toward-the-far-right JA21 are too great for that. Moreover, that coalition would only hold 75 seats, one short of a majority.
On Thursday, the newly elected Kamer will discuss Koolmees' report and decide who to appoint to lead the next phase of the formation talks. The D66 member already said that he can’t lead this phase. He has to return to his job as CEO of NS.
