Latest Cabinet crisis devastated Dutch voters' confidence in politics
The chaos in the caretaker Schoof I Cabinet last week has devastated Dutch voters’ little remaining confidence in national politics. Only 4 percent of voters in the Netherlands still think the national government and parties in parliament can get anything done, according to an RTL Nieuws poll among over 11,000 members of its opinion panel.
According to pollster Gijs Rademaker, confidence in politics always fluctuates, but this is a new low, and it illustrates how frustrated people are. “Many believe our country faces major challenges, and they say the parties aren’t focused on them, but only on themselves.”
A respondent who voted for the VVD in 2023 and trusted the process before said that they had no idea who to vote for in the upcoming parliamentary elections on October 29. “It’s all one big drama right now. We can’t do it together, and apparently, we can’t do it without each other. This doesn’t inspire much confidence in the future.”
Last week, the NSC pulled out of the caretaker Cabinet because it couldn’t convince the VVD and BBB to take more measures against Israel. It’s the first time ever that a party has left a collapsed Cabinet.
Half of the respondents would have preferred that the NSC stay in the fallen Cabinet to keep the country governable. “I understand they’re angry about Israel, but they are responsible for the country’s governance. Besides Israel, there are other important issues that remain unaddressed,” one said.
A third of voters approve of the NSC’s firm stance and departure from the caretaker Cabinet. These are mainly people who voted for the left-wing parties GroenLinks-PvdA and PvdD. “The country wasn’t being governed before this mess, so you might as well stick to your principles,” a respondent said.
The VVD and BBB are now the only parties left in the caretaker Schoof I Cabinet. The intention is that they’ll fill the Cabinet positions left vacant by the NSC’s departure and continue to govern until a new Cabinet is installed. This could take some time. After the previous election, the Cabinet formation process took seven months. The one after the 2021 elections took almost ten months.
It also seems doubtful that this caretaker Cabinet will be able to get anything done. The VVD and BBB hold only 32 seats in parliament. That means they’ll need the support of 44 opposition parliamentarians to get anything passed in the Tweede Kamer.
