And so it remains after the departure of the PVV rumbling in the coalition, which is now still in VVD, NSC and BBB. Those parties have been trying to distribute the posts of the nine departed PVV ministers for two days, spread over three hours of consultations. But they do not come out of it and the mutual frustration is going high again.
According to multiple sources, Friday was mainly high between the VVD and BBB. These parties both want to claim the asylum portfolio of the left Marjolein Faber. That is the most sought after post because there are already laws ready to make the asylum policy considerably stricter. The successor to Faber can possibly guide it by parliament before the elections. With that success, his or her party can then show off in the campaign. BBB, which shifts Deputy Prime Minister Mona Keijzer, is willing to leave the migration part of Fabers Work to NSC’s Deputy Prime Minister Eddy Van Hijum.
Van der Plas: ‘stalemate’
VVD and BBB do not yet admit a thumb -wide. Even an attempt by Schoof to squeeze things loose with one-to-one conversations, where the parties had to mention their preferences separately and could indicate for which ‘price’ they were willing to refrain from this, did not offer any relief on Friday. It is therefore not ‘cozy’ and ‘pragmatic’, says a source of The Hague about the bickering. “Let alone what the Netherlands needs or expects.”
Caroline van der Plas speaks of a ‘stalemate’ around asylum on Friday evening. “And we are not out of that yet,” continues the BBB leader. “It mainly has to do with the asylum file.” Behind the scenes, there are reproaches that the VVD has far too many nuts on its singing. At the same time, it is realized that the liberals are strong: without approval of the posting distribution, the current replacement scheme will be returned, and in it, outgoing VVD minister David van Weel (Justice) has received the asylum portfolio.
The further distribution of the PVV posts depends on who wins the battle for asylum. “They are puzzles to be laid,” said Schoof on Friday morning. Later in the day he expressed the expectation that it will take ‘a few days’ for the parties to be out. That prediction seems to be correct.
Although it is also unclear how to proceed. NSC and BBB are convinced that there will be further talk next week, but according to the VVD no appointment has yet been made. VVD leader Yesilgöz assumes that Van Weel remains the replacement of Faber until further notice: “We have looked at a new distribution together, but the thoughts are too much about it. As far as the VVD is concerned, we have lost enough time. And now on with the real work!” She doesn’t want to ‘make it even more mutually’.
Video: After the last Council of Ministers where Faber was present, she waved the statement: “I was a policy”
Posts
In addition to asylum, the three parties are not even on the number of posts, so how many of the nine PVV posts have to be filled. The portfolios of a number of State Secretaries can probably be observed by another minister at the same ministry.
Battle for the PVV posts paused: VVD, NSC and BBB ‘still in conversation’
But what the final distribution looks like, according to insiders, depends on whom the tug of war around the asylum post wins. “That is the first dominosteen to fall before the rest falls,” says an initiate.