Interview with Minister of Justice and Security Dilan Yeşilgöz on the state of Dutch crime journalism

Friday, 24 November 2023 - 10:24

VVD will not be part of next Cabinet, Yesilgöz announces as formation process starts

The conservative VVD party announced on Friday morning that it will not enter into the next Cabinet. The party did say it would be willing to tacitly support a center-right Cabinet. The decision could make it particularly difficult for the far-right PVV, which outperformed all other parties in this week’s election, to form a new coalition government with a majority of support in either house of Parliament.

VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz, also the current justice and security minister, said her decision not to enter the next Cabinet is because of the VVD’s losses during the election. The party currently has 34 seats in the Tweede Kamer, making it the largest faction in the lower house of Parliament.

However, exit polling shows the party will likely lose ten of those seats, making it the third largest behind both the PVV and the left-wing alliance between GroenLinks and Labour (PvdA).

The first VVD-led government with Mark Rutte at the helm was a minority coalition that held a majority with the tacit support from the PVV. But the PVV relatively quickly withdrew its support and the Rutte I Cabinet collapsed just over two years after its formation.

Yesilgöz announced that the VVD wouldn’t be part of the next government shortly before the start of a meeting between the party leaders and Tweede Kamer president Vera Bergkamp - the first step in the Cabinet formation process.

Her announcement is set to infuriate several parties on the more left side of the political spectrum. D66 leader Rob Jetten and Volt leader Laurens Dassen both expressly blamed far-right PVV’s massive election win on the VVD leaving the door open to entering a Cabinet with Geert Wilders’ populist party.

In the latest prognosis, the PVV is the largest party with 37 seats, a massive 20 more than the party had after the 2021 parliamentary election. GroenLinks-PvdA is second with 25 seats. The VVD is the third largest party with 24 seats, ten less than it had before the election.

The VVD’s withdrawal means that all eyes will be on Pieter Omtzigt, whose NSC scored 20 seats in parliament on its first time running. During the campaign, Omtzigt said he wouldn’t rule with the PVV as long as Wilders’ party wanted to ban Islam from the Netherlands, but he dithered on that point after the results came in.