Rob Jetten, Prime Minister of the Netherlands since this week, felt that he had “already spoken endlessly”. He also thought that “more or less all questions have been asked”, after a two-day parliamentary debate on the government statement. Jetten did not make any weighty words about the important tradition of the Prime Minister’s weekly press conference in the Nieuwspoort press center, as his predecessor Dick Schoof had done in 2024.
On the other hand: there had been no major incidents this week, as Schoof had experienced in his first week as prime minister. Schoof had just finished two days in which he had been accused of being “weak” by coalition partner Geert Wilders (PVV), and he had argued with his deputy prime minister Fleur Agema (also PVV).
For the first time since July 2002, the first days of Jan Peter Balkenende, there was a new Prime Minister at the weekly press conference who did not have to defend cooperation with the PVV. Mark Rutte also had to do that in 2010, when the PVV tolerated his minority cabinet and he had to explain at his first press conference that he would really become the prime minister of all Dutch people.
At his first press conference, Jetten was asked questions about matters other than the PVV. For example, it was about a post on the Instagram account of Hans Vijlbrief, Minister of Social Affairs and Jetten’s party member. Vijlbrief was shown with Minister Rianne Letschert (Education, D66), where a hip-hop song with the lyrics “bitches want to sleep with me” could be heard. Jetten distanced himself from that. “Think about it a little longer before you post something like that. This was inappropriate.”
Ten years of ‘terrible’ homophobia
To answer “the haters”, Jetten also wants to continue to show himself as a private person on social media. “I have been dealing with terrible homophobia for ten years. This leads to threats every day and reports every week. That is why I consciously chose this and try to combine the personal and the political.”
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Prime Minister Jetten had to answer for cooperation with the radical right in a different way. During the debate this week, it emerged that the coalition had concluded a deal on the AOW with the SGP and the Markuszower Group of PVV splitter Gidi Markuszower. A large part of the opposition wants to get the minority cabinet’s AOW reforms off the table, but this deal only resulted in a watered-down motion being passed. It states that mitigation must be sought for specific groups.
It turned out that Jetten looked at the collaboration with the Markuszower Group from a business perspective. As a minority cabinet, we simply need other parties for majorities, he said, and sometimes you get them from the right, sometimes from the left. It characterized his attitude during the press conference: he sounded cool, analytical and radiated that he did not want any drama.
Rob Jetten also did not want to talk about his predecessors for too long. He had once encountered PvdA member Wim Kok (prime minister between 1994 and 2002) in the woods as a child. Balkenende was Prime Minister when he was at school. It was Rutte when he entered politics. Rob Jetten did not want to talk too much about his predecessors, “I have to find my own way.”
