GL-PvdA might work with VVD, Timmermans says amid annoyance over another Wilders tweet
GroenLinks-PvdA leader Frans Timmermans would join negotiations for a new Cabinet if the current round of formation talks between the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB collapse. The left-wing party will not work with the PVV, but “won’t immediately close the door” if the VVD comes calling and wants to take a different tack, Timmermans told Nieuwsuur.
Timmermans previously said that there was still no role for GroenLinks-PvdA at the formation table and that the four right-wing parties must try to find a way out. “Now that he sees that it is taking a long time, that image is starting to change,” political analyst Arjan Noorlander said to the program. “Timmermans feels that little progress is visible after almost 150 days, while many problems remain. And in the meantime, Timmermans is quite visible in his opposition role.”
PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB are still negotiating a possible Cabinet. The formation leaders insist that the talks are progressing well, but things seem tense. PVV leader Geert Wilders is annoying the VVD and NSC leaders with his posts on X, formerly Twitter.
Last week, Wilders left discussions about the asylum policy early and then posted on X that the PVV would make no further concessions. This week, he called VVD State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) a “scary little man” after Van der Burg called it great that the formation parties decided that Wilders won’t be Prime Minister.
VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz and NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt both called the tweet “inappropriate,” speaking to NOS. Yeşilgöz said that you shouldn’t “throw out those kinds of qualifications” about people. She also said that she was disappointed that she had to keep responding to commotion about social media posts. “This really has to stop.” She’d rather spend her time and energy “building a Cabinet.” Omtzigt also said he’d rather focus on “what is needed for the country.”
When asked, BBB leader Caroline van der Plas told the broadcaster that she was “very tired” of all the tweeting and talking about each other. “It’s not my way of tweeting, but Geert Wilders should know what Geert Wilders is doing.”
Wilders said he won’t take back anything he said about Van der Burg, calling the VVD government member “someone who has turned the Netherlands into a big asylum center,” according to NOS. “If that person says he thinks it is fantastic that there will be no Wilders I Cabinet (...) then I firmly distance myself from it,” Wilders said. “What others think about that is of no concern to me.”
The formation leaders Richard van Zwol and Elbert Dijkgraaf said that irritation about Wilders’ social media behavior did not influence Thursday’s negotiations, which focused largely on the content. “We had no problems with it,” Dijkgraaf told NOS.
The party leaders brought up the irritation and then briefly discussed “how they can deal with it better,” Van Zwol said. “They all understand that there must be good contact with each other, even if something happens and there is a difference of opinion.”
