Negotiations to form a new government in the Netherlands are moving towards a minority cabinet, an unusual configuration in the Dutch political landscape, the leaders of the three parties likely to form a coalition announced on Friday. This option comes after weeks of difficult discussions in a particularly fragmented parliament.
Talks are continuing between the pro-European centrist party Democrats 66 (D66), winner of the October parliamentary elections, the conservative Christian Democrats, and the right-wing liberal party VVD. Together, these parties would only hold 66 of the 150 seats in the lower house, forcing them to seek support from other parties on a case-by-case basis to pass their proposals.
"It wasn't an easy decision," he acknowledged. Robert JettThe leader of D66, who at 38 could become the country's youngest prime minister and the first openly gay one, admitted that governing without a clear majority in a polarized parliament would be a challenge, while expressing his belief that compromises were still possible.
According to Rob Jetten, the future coalition will need to be convincing on national security issues, a topic on which several parties have made strong commitments to their voters. "If we make good proposals, the other parties will be ready to talk," he told the press in The Hague.
This potential alliance would also be in the minority in the Senate, the upper house of Parliament, which can block laws passed by the lower house, further complicating the legislative process. Traditionally, the Netherlands has been governed by majority coalitions, but the increasing fragmentation of political forces is making this model increasingly difficult to replicate.
After the October elections, the main traditional parties ruled out any cooperation with the anti-immigration populist Geert Wilderswhose party had brought down the previous government. For its part, the VVD rejected an alliance with the Green and Labour left, the only combination that would have allowed them to secure a comfortable majority.
The D66 also opposed the entry of the Eurosceptic and conservative JA21 party, which could have brought the total number of seats to 75. Lacking consensus, the leaders now seem ready to try the risky experiment of a minority government, in the hope of stabilizing a deeply fragmented Dutch political landscape.
