Parliament to debate provincial election results with Cabinet

The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, will debate the election results with the Cabinet. The coalition parties threw their support behind a request for a debate by GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver. The debate will happen on April 4.

Earlier on Tuesday, Klaver proposed a debate, but the coalition pirates hesitated to support it. That led to frustration for the opposition. Klaver asked for a roll-call vote on the proposal, but just before it could happen, the coalition had changed its mind.

Klaver wanted the debate as soon as possible, but two weeks from now “will be soon enough,” he said to ANP. “The most important thing for us is that the debate will take place. We had to force it, but we succeeded. And April 4 is a hard deadline. The coalition has two weeks to put things in order for itself and sort everything out.”

It is unusual for the Tweede Kamer to debate the Provincial Council elections. But Klaver still wanted a debate because the election caused significant shifts. Farmers’ party BBB became the largest in every province and is therefore also gaining a powerful position in the Senate. The coalition party VVD, D66, CDA, and ChristenUnie suffered major losses.

“The coalition is in dire straits at the moment. You can see that in everything,” Klaver said. “It is all the more important to talk openly about this with each other.” According to him, the primary purpose of the debate is that “all parties can indicate what they think should change due to these results.” He hopes that it will lead to choices being made and that by then, “it will become clear which direction we are going with the Netherlands, left or right.”

Hoekstra to remain CDA leader

The election results caused some turmoil in the coalition, especially in the CDA, which lost 31 of its 74 seats in the Provincial Councils in the elections last week. The party held crisis consultations and decided that Wopke Hoekstra could continue as CDA leader, but he must ensure that the party restores its connection with the country outside of political The Hague. Party chairman Hans Huibers and party leader Hoekstra called the consultations between the party leadership and the CDA leaders in the provinces a “probing conversation.”

“There is emotion and sadness within the party,” Hoekstra said after the more than three-hour-long meeting. Hoekstra noted that the voter had sent a “crystal clear signal” and that there was a “critical assignment” for him to close the gap between political The Hague and the country. “We have not listened enough to the people in the country. The voters say that the CDA has done wrong.”

According to Huibers, it is nevertheless “undoubtedly” clear that Hoekstra can stay on and also continue to fulfill his role as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

VVD also concerned

A group of VVD members expressed their concerns about the results of the Provincial Council elections in a letter to the party leadership. They wrote that the top has no connection with other VVD members and voters.

The signatories wonder whether “the club in The Hague” is thinking about its role “in the current state of affairs in the political and social landscape.” The about 100 signatories “would therefore like to urge you to take a critical look at what lies ahead.”

“It is essential that we realize that the people make the party, not the politics, and certainly not the political top. Together we are the VVD,” the signatories said. According to them, the outcome of the provincial elections makes clear that there is a lot of work to be done. “After more than 12 years of hard work, we are now in danger of losing our beautiful country to division, dissatisfaction, and a gap between The Hague and the rest of the Netherlands.”