The detailed plans of D66 and CDA are an ‘outstretched hand’ to other parties, said party leaders Rob Jetten (D66) and Henri Bontenbal (CDA). But the seventeen-page document that the parties wrote together contains many plans that will not immediately be welcomed by parties that are still desperately needed in the formation.
Informant Sybrand Buma presented the document in the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon. It is intended to make the formation successful, step by step, faster than the previous times. To gain mutual trust and to gain speed, D66 and CDA, two winners of the elections who would like to form a cabinet together, would first negotiate with each other. These weeks they spoke together about five themes: housing, nitrogen, economy, safety and migration.
The really difficult choices come next: who else will join? The VVD is an obvious choice for both parties, but that party excludes GroenLinks-PvdA. The VVD wants a right-wing cabinet, including JA21 in any case.
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Klaver and Yesilgöz want to participate
The VVD and GroenLinks-PvdA would like to participate. They see “sufficient starting points” to enter into discussions with D66 and CDA, the party leaders, Dilan Yesilgöz and Jesse Klaver, immediately said via X. In the coming days, like all faction leaders, they will visit informant Buma again, who must give advice on the further formation of the party by next Tuesday at the latest.
Yet D66 and CDA have not made it easy for either party. The document is very detailed in many parts and reads almost like a mini coalition agreement. A party that joins now will immediately be at a considerable disadvantage. D66 and CDA have already made compromises, and each new party at the table must renegotiate its own themes.
First about the compromises between D66 and the CDA: D66 has moved towards the CDA on a few important issues. The parties write that the CO2levy for industry is being abolished, while D66 is actually in favor of this. The year to achieve the nitrogen targets will be 2035. Then only half of the nature reserves will be allowed to precipitate too much nitrogen. That is again a wish of the CDA. D66 would prefer to achieve the goals by 2030.
Henri Bontenbal talking to the press at the presentation of the interim report by informant Sybrand Buma.
Photo Robin Utrecht /ANP
The housing section reads exactly like the housing plans presented by D66 last April. The parties want to reduce objection procedures and build on “at least 21 large-scale new construction locations”. D66 focused heavily on this theme, Rob Jetten even promised in the election campaign to build “ten new cities”.
Bontenbal and Jetten do not show a clear coalition preference with their choices. There are difficult measures for both VVD and GroenLinks-PvdA. For example, D66 and CDA want to phase out mortgage interest deduction, while the VVD declared that tax benefit sacrosanct during the election campaign. The two parties also want to introduce road pricing, where drivers pay according to use. This is also a sensitive issue for the VVD.
At the same time, the parties talk about sharp choices in healthcare, which GroenLinks-PvdA absolutely does not want to make cuts. The outgoing Schoof cabinet wants to halve the deductible in healthcare, but D66 and CDA want to maintain the current deductible, the document states.
Minority variant
The question remains: who will be allowed to participate in negotiating these choices? Jetten and Bontenbal no longer necessarily aim for a majority cabinet. The option of a minority cabinet is becoming increasingly realistic. Rob Jetten said about this to journalists on Tuesday afternoon: “We are used to majority cabinets in the Netherlands, which offer more stability in seats. But no one wants an endless formation.”
Loosely translated, Jetten means: we are not going to wait endlessly until Dilan Yesilgöz gives up her ‘no’ against GroenLinks-PvdA
Loosely translated, Jetten means: we are not going to wait endlessly until Dilan Yesilgöz gives up her ‘no’ against GroenLinks-PvdA, and if necessary, we will only govern with the VVD (the most obvious third party). That combination would yield 66 of the 150 House seats, so far from a majority. In the Senate that would only mean 22 of the 75 seats.
In the plenary hall of the House of Representatives, where the agenda was determined this Tuesday, MPs noticed that Henri Bontenbal sat in a chair of the VVD faction for a long time, talking to VVD MP Silvio Erkens. The GroenLinks-PvdA benches are much less busy these days. They see that they have been somewhat ignored by the two negotiating parties lately. This may also indicate that D66 and CDA are more seriously considering the minority variant with the VVD.
Coalition stuff
A minority cabinet offers D66 and CDA two major advantages: the VVD, ultimately a popular coalition partner, participates. And with three parties you have less chance of internal coalition hassles. That is a lesson from the last three cabinets, which consisted of four parties and all fell. But the danger outside is actually greater: the opposition then has a parliamentary majority and can vote down plans, or even an entire cabinet. To achieve this, left-wing and radical right-wing parties would have to work together.
Yet that is not completely impossible. Just look at the deductible, which D66 and CDA want to maintain, but GroenLinks-PvdA and PVV do not. It could also become complicated if this new cabinet wants to make cuts in healthcare. According to the document from informant Buma, both parties want to “keep rising costs manageable”, for example in elderly care. When it comes to these issues, the left and the radical right can mount serious opposition.
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