It seems like a century ago, yet it was only a year ago: the fall of the Schoof cabinet. After eleven months of ‘reigning’, Geert Wilders no longer felt like it on June 3, 2025. VVD, NSC and BBB were left disappointed.
The time of handing out free beer must really be over, I wrote after the fall. Political parties had to stop promising that everything can be done at the same time: more homes, cheaper healthcare, more defense, better nature. Without even one sector having to comply or the Dutch will feel it in their wallets. That’s not possible. There are simply not enough workers, there is not enough space to fulfill all those promises.
I got what I wanted. A year later, there has been a cabinet for a hundred days that does not hand out free beer. That makes difficult choices (cutbacks in healthcare and social security), and does not spread syrup around the mouths of voters. Not in the coalition agreement and not during the first major test: the energy crisis caused by the war against Iran. Despite great pressure from the radical right opposition parties and the SP, from business associations and trade unions, the government came up with a sober support package, exactly as economists advised.
Yet this week I heard negative reviews of the Jetten cabinet (D66, VVD, CDA) everywhere. The minority cabinet gets little done and antagonizes the unions by dropping an agreement from the pension agreement. The coalition positions itself as a majority cabinet. She has made mutual agreements about cuts that seem unshakable. And the cabinet is not a unit, the VVD behaves like an opposition party.
The fearful suspicion arises that this self-proclaimed breakthrough cabinet – Get started – also comes to a stop on a muddy path. That’s bad on so many fronts that it gives me a stomach ache.
Promise Gap
This week it emerged that confidence in politics and democracy continued to decline last year. Only 19 percent of voters had confidence in the House of Representatives in 2025, according to the National Voter Survey. In 2023 that was still 30 percent.
Governments promise much and achieve little. And that eats away at confidence. 2025 was a year with “a striking lack of progress,” said Pieter Duisenberg, president of the Court of Auditors in the House of Representatives in mid-May.
But the promise gap has existed for some time, as the Court of Audit’s annual investigation into what becomes of government plans shows. The nitrogen problem is not being solved. Duisenberg: “I have the feeling that the Netherlands has stood still, while the world around us seems to be picking up speed.” He previously called, together with the National Ombudsman and the Council of State, for a “realistic government” that should only promise “what it can do”.
The inability to solve problems is very unfortunate, because right now there is a need for excellent governance and an effective government. The task is enormous. Construction has to take place at a rapid pace, entire sectors have to be reformed and there is a tremendous amount of overdue maintenance in the collective sector.
First the construction: many more homes, a heavier power grid, a much larger defense force. Then reform: agriculture and industry must be made more environmentally and climate-friendly. These are already enormous jobs, but there is also a worrying amount of overdue maintenance.
Just look at all the neglected bridges, roads and locks for which this government has also made insufficient money available. Or the problems faced by government implementers who get stuck in complicated rules. The declining reading skills of children also cry out for attention.
And this all has to happen in a world that is changing dramatically without us knowing exactly how. For example by AI. And because we can no longer thinklessly lean on our old ally the United States. And because new superpower China uses its economic power as a weapon. So we must also become less vulnerable and dependent, for example by building our own larger IT and defense industry.
When I look at the election manifestos, there are all kinds of compromises between left-wing and right-wing middle parties.
Man, it’s so much. If the Netherlands were a house, there is a problem with the foundation, the pipes and wiring, the roof and the window frames as a long storm brews.
In theory, a minority cabinet could easily bring about such major changes. When I look at the election manifestos, there are all kinds of compromises up for grabs between left-wing and right-wing middle parties in the areas of nitrogen, housing and the economy.
But that will not work if the VVD hangs on to the financial agreements of three coalition parties with 66 seats. And opposition parties feel constricted in a financial corset that is not theirs.
The first major test is the nitrogen plan that the new Agriculture Minister Jaimi van Essen (D66) is presenting this month. If this government manages to finally solve that problem, it would be a huge step forward.
The second major test is whether this government spends all those billions of euros extra on defense sensibly and buys as much security as possible. The first signs are not reassuring. Defense has only just started and is already receiving criticism from the Court of Audit about how it is doing this.
When I think about what we all have to do, it’s daunting. But the Netherlands is a prosperous country with an economy that is performing better than those in the countries around us, we are smart. And not all responsibility for solving this lies with the cabinet. It also lies with trade unions, companies, farmers, citizens, municipalities, provinces and the rest of parliament. With all of us.