Prominent VVD leader thinks Plasterk should not become next prime minister

Prominent VVD politician Johan Remkes said he does not believe that Ronald Plasterk should not become prime minister after the announced coalition between the PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB. On Saturday, newspaper NRC once again published an article about possible impropriety surrounding Plasterk's patent application for a cancer treatment, which could soon cause both financial and legal problems for him.

"If there are indeed serious accusations to be made, then it will be a very difficult one. I would draw my own conclusions," Remkes said during a broadcast of WNL op Zondag. Remkes has also helped moderate coalition agreements between parties.

"I think that this has seriously damaged the reputation of the political process," said the VVD member. "You can predict that the name mentioned as a result of this has in fact already been severely damaged. If it is him, this would be a very bad start" to the new coalition.

Plasterk has not yet been officially nominated as a possible prime minister by the coalition parties, but his name has been floating around as a rumored favorite for several weeks. Plasterk also helped moderate negotiations between the four parties for over two months, ending in mid-February. He is believed to be the first choice of PVV leader Geert Wilders, whose far-right party holds the most seats in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Parliament.

One of the possible other stumbling blocks is Plasterk's relationship with NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt. This suffered a ding during a parliamentary debate about a round of negotiations that Plasterk led. He said that Omtzigt took Plasterk's official car to drive to a hotel to tell journalists why he had dropped out of the negotiations. Plasterk publicly apologized for this on Friday in a terse letter published in the Telegraaf.

Remkes was not at all impressed by the words Plasterk chose, and the manner in which he published it. Remkes said it was a, "weird, completely idiotic letter."

"I'm not going to judge that," was Caroline van der Plas's answer when she was asked on the television show, Buitenhof, whether Plasterk can still become prime minister. That question will have to be answered by Plasterk himself, said the BBB leader. She added that she wanted to be careful "not to start shaming people before it has been proven that something is or isn't happening."

Dutch broadcaster NOS reported on Sunday afternoon that it was becoming increasingly unlikely that Plasterk would become prime minister. Each of the four parties has doubts about his nomination. The broadcaster made the claim based on conversations with anonymous sources.