There were big words in the Lower House about America, Ukraine and the safety of Europe on Tuesday. VVD party leader Dilan Yesilgöz spoke of a ‘historical revolution’, others prefer to use the German Zeitenwende. Neville Chamberlain was placed opposite Winston Churchill.
Frans Timmermans (GroenLinks-Pvda) took the lead and compared the European absence in the American-Russian negotiating table with words by French envoy Melchior de Polignac in 1712 in Utrecht against the Dutch about the Spanish Succession War: “We will negotiate about you, with you, without you. ”
The House of Representatives debated on Tuesday about the geopolitical landslide that the Trump government initiated. Rock -resistant values suddenly turned out to be less certain. Dilan Yesilgöz – party leader of a party who cherishes the transatlantic bond as one of the most important belief articles – had to admit that Europe must now take responsibility for its safety. The VVD still doesn’t want a European army, she said on questions from, among others, Laurens Dassen (Volt). And the VVD also would rather not do not want European loans (‘Eurobonds’) for extra defense spending, but in the meantime Yesilgöz had just said it: “It should not be a matter of who was chosen in the White House for our safety.”
Debate on Sharp
On Monday, PVV leader Geert Wilders had focused the debate on X: no approval of Dutch participation in a European peace force in Ukraine, about which Minister Ruben Brekelmans (Defense, VVD) and Prime Minister shoved himself well. With this, Wilders took a minority position: a majority of the House voted on Tuesday before a motion of D66 and the VVD in which the government is called into a “constructive attitude” about a possible peace force.
Wilders has little to win in a cabinet crisis on Ukraine
For the VVD, support for Ukraine was a crown jewel in the cabinet negotiations. Yesilgöz emphasized that by putting her signature under a joint motion with-Bene-GroenLinks-PvdA before the start of the debate.
In this, the government is called upon to hold on to these agreements and to release ‘in the short time as possible’ ‘required resources’ for this. Extra financial support for Ukraine – Wilders had excited about it last month.
But in the sight of a room-wide majority, the PVV leader suddenly seemed to choose eggs for his money. “At a later stage,” Wilders suddenly said, his party may agree with a Dutch contribution to a peace force. The PVV remains against ‘Boots on the ground” – ground troops. Wilders said about other contributions (“equipment, money, planes”). The PVV leader may not have completely sharp that Dutch F-35 combat aircraft should operate from a Ukrainian basis and should be supported by ground staff in combat boots.
Last week Wilders had threatened to drop the cabinet on asylum. However, Wilders has little to win in a cabinet crisis on Ukraine. Yesilgöz made a typical VVD theme of the American-Russian negotiations in Riad: “The safety of Dutch”-this time not threatened by criminal asylum seekers, but by “the aggressor” Vladimir Putin. As far as Yesilgöz is concerned, the Cabinet Schoof gets “a wide mandate” to ensure that safety.
Sheaf keeps options open
Prime Minister Dick Schoof said in the debate that he feels sufficient support in the House of Representatives to have “open conversations” within Europe about a Dutch contribution to a peace force. The prime minister did not want to anticipate the precise interpretation of this.
Schoof did indicate that it should be prevented that Dutch soldiers in Ukraine would have “an unclear mandate” and that there is always a military “back up” of the Americans in the case of a violence escalation with Russia.