Dutch right-wing cabinet talks continue with constitutional safeguards against Wilders

11 months ago 32

Putting an end to the possibility of a centre government including Frans Timmermans, coalition scout Ronald Plasterk sees a right-wing cabinet “possible” if far-right PVV gives up on controversial anti-EU and anti-Islam goals during the first stage of negotiations, as required by centre-right NSC and liberal VVD to preserve the rule of law.

After a landslide victory by far-right PVV in the Dutch national election in November with 37 out of 150 seats, a right-wing government formed by PVV, centre-right NSC, liberal VVD, and farmers’ BBB appears to be the future of the Netherlands.

Even though NSC and VVD are reluctant to negotiate with the far-wight due to the party’s anti-Islam stance, PVV’s leader Geert Wilders has expressed his willingness to “put on hold” the most controversial electoral goals, though these are “in the DNA” of the party, he said, as reported by NOS.

Simultaneously, Plasterks’ coalition scouting report clarifies that VVD rejects a centre-left coalition with Timmermans’ socialists and greens (PvdA/GL), liberal pro-EU D66 and centre-right NSC as a logical option.

In this context, Plasterk recommends the four forces hold talks to agree on a policy plan to safeguard fundamental rights.

“I recommend investigating whether an agreement has been or can be reached between the parties PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB on a joint baseline for safeguarding the Constitution, fundamental rights and the democratic constitutional state,” Plasterk wrote in his report, made public on Monday, after holding talks with all political forces.

If the parties can agree on constitutional safeguards for PVV’s anti-constitutional electoral promises, negotiations would continue on substantial policy negotiations on key topics such as migration, climate, social security, nitrogen, and agriculture.

Even if parties can agree on these constitutional safeguards and policy directions, coalition talks will not be “a piece of cake”, as Plasterk said, since VVD has stated they want to support a minority government without participating in the coalition, while NSC would only agree to govern with the far-right if VVD participates too.

The next step will be for PVV to appoint an informateur, who will steer the talks among the four parties until the end of February when the speaker of the Dutch Parliament expects another report.

(Max Griera | Euractiv.com)