A ‘small, crippled cabinet’ that needs to look for support humbly

ChristenUnie leader Mirjam Bikker likes to give compliments. She starts with that in just about every debate in the Lower House. But even she can’t afford that anymore, Tuesday morning just before the throne. “We see,” she says, “a lame, small cabinet that can no longer move forward.” She sighs. “Prinsjesdag should be a beautiful day, but it is a sad event.”

King Willem-Alexander, in the Royal Theater of The Hague, calls it a cabinet with “a rare narrow basis.” Only the VVD and BBB are still there, together they have 32 seats in the Lower House. In the story of the king, on behalf of the cabinet, humility sounds: “The pole of the government policy does not extend further than you allow.” The cabinet promises, the king also says, “an open, listening attitude.” The government cannot do anything without the support of other parties.

A bad marriage. Let the House of Representatives do it itself

There is also a hand in its own bosom, although it sounds a bit cumbersome. “Unfortunately,” says De Koning, “people in the Netherlands seem to be increasingly opposed to each other.” On the street, online, at universities. “And in the last place also in The Hague. With pronounced views, for or against, black or white.”

In the first row, the outgoing Deputy Prime Ministers Sophie Hermans of the VVD and Mona Keijzer of BBB at the King, concentrated. Prime Minister Dick Schoof looks forward, he seems to be in mind.

‘Space and trust’

A year ago everything was even different. The speech then started with the performance of the Netherlands at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. And the king had mentioned all the big plans and promises: about nitrogen, new homes, asylum policy. There would be a government that gave “space and trust” to people. Schoof, former top official, was just two and a half months prime minister. He listened to attention. In addition to him, PVV Vice-Prime Minister Fleur Agema and NSC Vice Prime Minister Eddy Van Hijum were also. According to De Koning, the cabinet’s motto was: “What is possible.”

According to Member of Parliament Ismail El Abassi (DENK), the Cabinet Schoof mainly became the cabinet of what could not be done. “The VAT reduction on groceries that Wilders wanted so badly, the reduction of rents: it all didn’t happen.” He calls the group of ministers and state secretaries of VVD and BBB “the remains of a right-wing extremist cabinet.”

Marieke Koekkoek van Volt sees two parties sitting together who “do their best to keep it up together”. “A bad marriage.” As far as she is concerned, those two will also stop. “Let the House of Representatives do it itself.”

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SP wants with CDA

SP leader Jimmy Dijk starts after the throne speech about the quarrels where the Get Storet had collapsed. That he puts his own party as the better alternative is nothing special. However, he immediately mentions the CDA. Jimmy Dijk is on free feet. He wants to go with his party in the next cabinet, together with the party of Henri Bontenbal. The SP and the CDA, he says, both want a different kind of politics. They want to “build on communities.”

The speech now states that there must be attention for nitrogen and housing, but outside the room the plans that the king has read are seen as pre-bacon and bean plans. Only after the elections of 29 October will be debated and voted on it, by a new Lower House. Almost certainly everything will be changed.

We ensure that the country keeps running

That is what politicians in The Hague are busy on Prinsjesdag: the election campaign, and who then wants to work with whom or not. It will almost certainly be a lot about this in the general political considerations on Wednesday and Thursday in the Lower House.

For the remaining government parties VVD and BBB, to participate in this cabinet is the way to show itself to voters. Politicians of those parties say every few sentences that they ‘take responsibility.’ “Something can happen today or tomorrow in the Netherlands or the rest of the world,” says MP Henk Vermeer of BBB, “and then it is useful if there is a club that is as complete as possible. We ensure that the country keeps running.”

Reflect

In a conversation with ten reporters, at the Ministry of General Affairs, Dick Schoof says at the end of the day he has called in recent weeks with group chairmen of many parties. To hear what they want, and also to say what he still wants with his cabinet: that at least the asylum laws are still being accepted. But the cabinet, and also, he says, “fits modesty.”

He does not want to say how he looks back on his premiership, without a party and with a cabinet that fell apart. “I let it reflect on myself.” What he does say: the prime minister, he wishes a majority in the Lower House “who grants each other”. Because, according to him, there was not that “gun factor” between PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB. “And I’m talking about all four.”

He will remain outgoing prime minister as long as it is necessary, he says. “But when the cabinet fell the first time, I registered for the marathon in Sydney. That is in the summer of 2026.”

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