Christian party leader left formation doc on train; "Extremely silly," PM Rutte says

ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Segers was the one who left a document that the VVD and CDA prepared for the Cabinet formation on a train. There someone found it and passed it on to the Volkskrant. "Extremely silly," VVD leader Mark Rutte said about it. "Things like this happen."

Segers made his confession on Twitter on Wednesday. "The stupidest thing that could happen to you," said Segers. "I travel up and down The Hague by train. That is a nice way to travel and almost always goes well. But now it went very wrong. I am human and have done something very stupid. Sorry."

The document was shared with the D66 and ChristenUnie, which are negotiating a new Cabinet with the VVD and CDA.

Both Rutte and informateur Johan Remkes stressed that the document is no longer relevant. "A lot of pieces go around in a formation, also between parties. So this says nothing about the end product in terms of content," Rutte said.

"To be honest, the relevance escapes me," informateur Remkes said. "This is a piece from the previous phase of the formation." He, too, noted that forgetting a document on a train can happen to anyone. "People often forget things on the train. That has happened to me too."

The document came from a phase in the formation process when Remkes investigated a minority Cabinet with the VVD, CDA, and D66. In the summer, the VVD and D66 also wrote a draft coalition agreement. The two pieces have many similarities. Moreover, points from the leaked document are in line with ChristenUnie's election program.

Geert Wilders, leader of opposition party PVV, wants the leaked document to be given to parliament. He wants to debate it next week, along with the "interpretation of the informateurs." Wilders will make this request in parliament on Wednesday.