It was their last chance to show that they could become the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands, on Tuesday evening at the NOS final debate. And what did the leaders of PVV, D66, GroenLinks-PvdA, CDA, VVD do with that opportunity?
Geert Wilders started talking about “the intimate feeling” of his party “for people’s pain” and said again that he should have become prime minister, not Dick Schoof. Rob Jetten pretended to be Prime Minister, also of Wilders’ voters. He used phrases like “in my country,” and “under my leadership.”
Frans Timmermans of GL-PvdA talked about “hope instead of hate” and repeated several times that “the Wilders era” could be “closed” on election day. CDA leader Henri Bontenbal wanted to “turn the page” of the “old politics”, he portrayed Wilders and Timmermans as two old men who had been having the same “discussions” with each other “since 1998”.
VVD member Yesilgöz had decided that in the debate part on defense she would start about her visit to Ukrainian President Zelensky in the spring, as if she already knew what it was like to be Prime Minister.
A lot depended on it for all of them. For Jetten, there suddenly seems to be the possibility that his party will become the largest. For Wilders, this is precisely what is at stake: the PVV is now the largest, but is falling in the polls. Timmermans had counted on his party being able to defeat the PVV, but sees left-wing voters having doubts and switching.
At the CDA they also dreamed of the Torentje and Bontenbal’s hands were “itching”, he said in NRC. But in recent days their party has collapsed in the polls. At the same time, Bontenbal, who comes from five seats, knows: he will win many seats no matter what. It is different with Yesilgöz: she tried to limit the loss in recent weeks by choosing a less fierce tone in the debates than her colleagues are used to. She smiled a lot. Also Tuesday evening.
Eating cake
The party leaders themselves will also vote on Wednesday morning. Then all they can do is wait. Mirjam Bikker of the Christian Union goes to the bakery to get cakes, as she always does on election days, to “celebrate the festival of democracy” with her family, she says. Her children can all choose a cake as if they were coloring a ball of red on the ballot paper.
Caroline van der Plas is also going to eat cake, together with her mother and her brother who is celebrating his birthday. She also has to get a pedicure and she wants to clean her car. “That’s what I’ve been living in lately.” CDA leader Henri Bontenbal will, he says, try to improve his running record: he wants to be able to run nine kilometers. Then he goes to lunch with his wife. “I haven’t seen her enough these weeks.” Laurens Dassen from Volt might want to send out some flyers.
They are all tired.
It was a campaign that did not have one theme. If you asked Dilan Yesilgöz, she would say that the elections were about whether there should be a left or a “center-right” cabinet. As if the VVD, which continued to lose in the polls, was still in control. If you asked Rob Jetten, he said it was about whether the democratic or anti-democratic parties were going to win. With a new, more right-wing story, his party had started to do better in the polls and in every debate Jetten seemed to have more self-confidence.
PVV leader Geert Wilders did little in the campaign, he seemed to find it difficult to keep hearing that he was a “runaway” who had achieved nothing. The PVV was high in the polls for a long time, Wilders acted as if he had already won and said that he should become prime minister this time. He sometimes also sounded threatening: if the PVV won again and was not allowed to participate in a government because the others excluded him, democracy would be “dead”, according to him. Then “the people” would be angry and disappointed.
The other parties did not respond. They saw that he was running a different campaign than in 2023, when he still seemed willing to compromise and tried to present himself as a more moderate. JA21 leader Joost Eerdmans would like to take over that role, his party wants to participate in the next government and is not excluded by other parties.
‘Vote for your ideals’
The fact that things have become increasingly tense between the major parties in recent days, because they came close in the polls, made the smaller parties worried. It was then that people could decide to strategically vote for such a large party, to prevent another party from becoming the largest. In the first part of the NOS debate, with the smaller parties, Volt leader Laurens Dassen in particular tried to change voters’ minds. According to him, people should vote for their “ideals”. “Otherwise you will be disappointed.” Mirjam Bikker said: “A strategic vote is a vote with your heart.”
What was not discussed in the debates, but which was always a factor in the background, was the safety of party leaders themselves, from right to left. Wilders did not come to the very first debate on the radio because there seemed to be a threat from Belgium, nor did he come to the first RTL debate. Timmermans was verbally abused and intimidated just before that debate. Dilan Yesilgöz could not immediately go home after the SBS debate due to a suspicious situation in her neighborhood.
From Thursday morning, the leaders no longer have to do their best for seats, which have already been divided. But for a place at the negotiating table. The intention is that all party leaders will sit together in the House of Representatives on Friday to decide how to proceed. The largest party will almost certainly come up with a scout soon: the start of the formation.
And then Schoof would have a successor. Bee Pauw & De Witon Wednesday evening in Nieuwspoort, he said that the premiership was “a dog track”. “But a fantastically beautiful dog track.” In the House of Representatives he had sometimes said about the premiership: “I don’t wish it on you.” He didn’t want to say that again in the talk show. The “potential prime ministers”, he also said, were sitting at the table with him. There were only Bontenbal and Yesilgöz.
Dick Schoof once again said that he himself had become Prime Minister of the cabinet with PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB, because he has often been asked: no, he “hadn’t regretted it for a day”.
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