Right-wing nationalist-led government takes office in the Netherlands

The new Dutch government, made up of 15 ministers and headed by technocrat Dick Schoof, took office on Tuesday (2), inaugurating a legislature in which the nationalist right will be at the center of power, after 223 days of negotiations since the elections on November 22.

Inside Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague, ministers and state secretaries filed past King Willem-Alexander one by one to be sworn into their new roles, before heading upstairs to take the traditional cabinet photo with the monarch.

It was the first time Willem-Alexander, who ascended to the throne in 2013, had led a government inauguration ceremony other than the liberal Mark Rutte, who had been in power since 2010 with four successive cabinets. After the ceremony, Rutte handed the key to his office to Schoof.

The government coalition is made up of four parties, with the right-wing PVV, led by Geert Wilders, controlling five ministries. The other three are the liberal VVD (four ministers), the Christian Democrat NSC (four) and the peasant party BBB (two).

Of the four partners, only the VVD, Mark Rutte’s party, has government experience, while the BBB and the NSC were created recently, in 2019 and 2023, respectively.

Wilders’ PVV, founded in 2006, was close to power when Rutte negotiated its extra-parliamentary support in 2010, but without providing ministers.

However, in 2012, Wilders withdrew his support for the Liberals over disagreements over cuts during the financial crisis, forcing new elections. Rutte then formed a cabinet with the Social Democrats and vetoed Wilders from further parliamentary terms.

Rutte’s successor, Dilan Yeşilgöz, lifted this veto before the November elections, which – according to analysts – boosted support for the PVV, as it now had a real chance of entering the government.

In fact, Wilders’ party, with an anti-immigration campaign, won the elections (with 37 of the 150 seats in Parliament), which allowed him to negotiate a government.

However, his three partners forced him to renounce his aspiration to personally lead the government, as well as to set aside several proposals considered “contrary to the rule of law”, such as the ban on Islam and the Koran, as a condition for continuing the dialogue.

Dick Schoof was elected Prime Minister by consensus and is the only member of the government who does not have a political career: he was an employee of the Ministry of Justice, head of the intelligence service (AIVD), head of the National Coordination Office for the Fight against Terrorism (NCTV) and director of the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND).

The four partners reached a government pact in mid-May, with some broad outlines of how the legislature should work, but the new ministers will still have to develop a government program.

There are no clues as to what its specific policies will be, although there is special attention, for example, to migration: the pact includes the intention to reduce immigration, asking the European Union for an “exclusion clause” from community policies.

The agenda also includes the housing crisis, nitrogen emissions and problems in the livestock sector, and the resolution of scandals inherited from Rutte, such as the consequences of earthquakes due to gas extraction in Groningen and compensation for tens of thousands of families affected by institutional discrimination by the Tax Agency.

“I am very much looking forward to starting my work as Prime Minister. For a safe and fair Netherlands, with social protection for all. I am for controlling migration, maintaining dialogue, making decisions and being clear about this. You can count on me,” Schoof said after taking office.