Richard de Mos will not return to the coalition in the municipality of The Hague for the time being. The former alderman, who leads the largest party in the city council, was recently completely acquitted of corruption and now wants to be included in the council of B and W. The coalition parties say they are quite willing to drink coffee or tea with him, but otherwise they keep the door closed.
In a council meeting on Thursday evening, De Mos (Hart for The Hague / Group de Mos) said that he wants to negotiate with the five parties in the coalition in the coming months. These are D66, VVD, GroenLinks, PvdA and CDA. As far as De Mos is concerned, those parties can remain in the council and no alderman has to leave. As far as he is concerned, it must be clear before 1 September whether this ‘join-in variant’ has any chance of success.
D66, the largest party in the coalition, calls it undesirable that the existing coalition be broken up. “New negotiations lead to uncertainty, a year after the previous negotiations. The doubts we previously had about De Mos are gone, but this case has already destroyed enough. We have to repair and renovate, but not by demolishing the coalition,” said party leader Marieke van Doorn. The VVD is prepared to talk to De Mos, but not at the expense of the existing coalition. “We have come to agreements that you cannot just throw overboard.”
Major substantive differences
GroenLinks and PvdA say that the substantive differences between them and Hart voor Den Haag are very large. CDA party chairman Kavish Partiman also denounces De Mos: “You have to work together with the entire council and stand for the entire city. Also for the part that didn’t vote for you and never will. There I see challenges for a possible collaboration with Hart voor Den Haag.”
The meeting ended after more than four hours with no concrete outcome. The debate is likely to continue next week. Several motions will then be discussed, including the appointment of a scout and a call to Justice Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz to intervene and withdraw the appeal of the Public Prosecution Service.
Completely acquitted
De Mos was an alderman in the city from 2018 to 2019, just like fellow party member Rachid Guernaoui. The Public Prosecution Service thought that they helped friendly entrepreneurs in exchange for donations to the party. Because of the suspicions, the party was expelled from the coalition. Last month, De Mos and Guernaoui were fully acquitted, as were all other suspects. The Public Prosecution Service has appealed to prevent the deadline for expiring, but it is not yet known whether it will really challenge the acquittals.
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