New facilitator to oversee talks to break Netherland’s three-month political deadlock

The Dutch parliament has shied away from calling a fresh general election in an attempt to break the three-month-long deadlock over the make-up of a coalition government – and has instead appointed a new facilitator to oversee another round of talks focused on a right-wing administration.

At the end of a week in which the talks’ first facilitator stood down in a row over the abrupt departure of Pieter Omtzigt’s New Social Contract party, and there were angry recriminations in parliament, far-right leader Geert Wilders said he still aimed to be the country’s next prime minister.

While opinion polls showed growing public dissatisfaction with the failure of the four right-wing parties – the Freedom Party, the liberal VVD, the farmers’ BBB and the NSC – to reach what many see as the most appropriate agreement, they also showed Mr Wilders was not blamed for that failure.

The polls continue to suggest that were the general election to be rerun tomorrow, the Freedom Party would be the big beneficiary – increasing its November total of seats from 37 to perhaps as many as 50 or more, within distance of a majority government.

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“All options remain on the table as far as I’m concerned,” said Mr Wilders, as the Netherlands faced the prospect of another four weeks re-exploring the right-wing coalition options with the Freedom Party, the VVD and the BBB, but without the NSC who’ve opted to “sit this round out”.

“We are most certainly not opting for new elections”, he said. “We want to shoulder our responsibilities.”

Elements of the Dutch media were not as forgiving, however. One commentator dismissed the on-again off-again talks as “like right-wing relationship therapy”, while another said it was “like a slow-motion soap opera”.

As the initial facilitator, former home affairs minister, Ronald Plasterk, handed over to his replacement, the chair of the national social and economic council, Kim Putters, the options remaining are more limited.

Without the NSC, there is no possibility that the Freedom Party, VVD and BBB can put together a majority government.

A minority coalition might be a possibility but only if the VVD is willing to reverse its earlier position and join the Freedom Party and the BBB as a full partner – and even then those three will need the support of the NSC from the opposition benches.

Most talked about as a new option is the possibility of a so-called “cabinet of experts” or “extra-parliamentary cabinet”, a more technocratic option which is not based on a parliamentary majority and in which ministers would be subject-matter experts rather than politicians.

There has been one example of this in Dutch politics from 1973 to 1977, comprising Labour, the Christian People’s Party and the Anti-Revolutionary Party, and led by Labour prime minister, Joop den Uyl, in a time of multiple crises, including the oil crisis.

This appears to have some support from the NSC and most recently from the VVD, However, VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz conceded on Friday: “It’s something new for which I don’t yet have a template.”

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