According to the cabinet, it should not be called crisis consultations. Ministers and state secretaries passed a horde of journalists with meaningless statements on Tuesday evening.
Why crisis? No, they said they were in for an interesting get-together with an Italian buffet. Not at the local pizzeria but in the Torentje. The ministers wanted to discuss the election results and write a letter to the Lower House about it.
The big question is whether the great victory of the BoerBurgerBeweging makes the established political order humble enough. It doesn’t look like it. And that while many voters no longer appreciate the laconic attitude and the succession of weak excuses for scandals, mismanagement and the gap that has arisen between the city and the countryside.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s performance after the deliberation was a worn scene in a bad farce. He announced that the cabinet will try to make improvements to issues that are of concern to voters.
No crisis. According to him, this is a ‘more fundamental discussion, also because the unease in society has been going on for much longer’. If only he had woken up earlier. It is the sad struggle of a cabinet that has long since lost its moral authority in large parts of the Netherlands.
In that regard, the report released this week by three key government advisory councils speaks volumes. The Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli), the Council for Public Health & Society (RVS) and the Council for Public Administration (ROB) note that the government should not only emphasize economic returns when making policy choices, but also the consequences for society and the living environment in all parts of the country. Government policy is now mainly strengthening regions that are already strong.
In other words: the Netherlands is more than a Randstad where administrators who are in their bubble in The Hague have no idea how their policy is reflected elsewhere, what broad prosperity is and how they can distribute it more fairly.