It’s Monday morning and Rita Verdonk, seventeen years ago Mark Rutte’s political arch-rival, is sitting in the public gallery of the large debate hall of the House of Representatives. Half an hour earlier, he shared “something personal” with the House. “When a new cabinet takes office, after the elections, I will leave politics.” He had, he also said, decided a day earlier and told his party chairman and the VVD party chairmen in the House of Representatives and Senate. The other VVD members, in the benches opposite him, heard it for the first time, together with the rest of the Lower House. Shortly after his statement, when the debate was briefly paused, the liberals received an explanation from Rutte behind closed doors. One after the other VVD member then left the party room with a straight face, hardly anyone wanted to say anything.
Next to Verdonk, in the stands, is Yusuf Serkan Kunduz (17), a member of the JOVD, the youth organization of the VVD, in Rijnmond. He was four when Rutte became prime minister, and he calls the VVD member retiring after the elections “logical”, and also “emotional”. He addresses Verdonk: “What a great statesman, isn’t he, that Rutte.” Verdonk remains silent for a moment. “He has done a lot of good internationally,” she says thoughtfully. “But our country is not in good shape, with one crisis after another.”
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Verdonk had competed against Mark Rutte in 2006 in the battle for the leadership of the VVD. That battle was intense. Verdonk lost, and after she continued to criticize him and the party, she was expelled from the VVD party by Rutte. Why did she come to the House of Representatives on Monday? “Intuition,” she says with a laugh.
A series of departures
Rutte’s departure is one in a series. On Monday morning, CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra first made it through The Telegraph known that he will not return as party leader. The CDA member, plagued by internal criticism, had first informed the newspaper and only then his own party. CDA chairman Hans Huibers and party chairman Pieter Heerma were on Sunday evening, around the time The Telegraph goes to the printer, only called by Hoekstra.
Later in the morning, Pieter Heerma also announced that he would not be returning to the House after the elections. Heerma, a member of the House of Representatives for almost eleven years, said that it is “time for a new generation”.
All those announcements, especially those of Mark Rutte: parties seemed to be at a loss in the main hall and the corridors. Some had taken into account that Rutte would participate again as a party leader for the VVD, and would therefore be the ideal opponent in the campaign for the parliamentary elections. Now that that is no longer possible, it was heard on Monday, the playing field is open again.
And that the parties had not yet fully decided who they should look for as an opponent, became clear in the debate about the fall of the cabinet. Caroline van der Plas of the BoerBurgerBeweging, the same size as the VVD in the polling guide (a weighted average of I&O Research, Ipsos and Kantar Public), was interrupted zero times. VVD party leader Sophie Hermans, on the other hand, received the most questions from the House. And not just from the opposition parties. Coalition parties D66 and ChristenUnie also seemed to want to repeat the negotiations of the past few weeks in the House of Representatives. And what was striking: in the cabinet section, Rutte seemed to be only half listening. He was busy on his phone for most of the debate.
Withdrawn motions
Opposition parties had tried to build tension in recent days. PVV leader Geert Wilders announced that he would submit a motion of no confidence, as did GroenLinks and the Labor Party. The two left-wing parties wanted a ‘business prime minister’, someone who is independent, to take over from the outgoing cabinet until the elections. But after Rutte’s announcement, none of the motions were tabled.
What was visible was the struggle of many parties to combine praise for the outgoing prime minister with criticism of the policy of his cabinet(s). For example, PVV leader Geert Wilders thanked him for his “unbridled commitment to the Netherlands”, to continue in the same breath with his criticism of the Rutte IV cabinet, which according to him “will go down in history as the club that our national pride of farmers and wanted to destroy fishermen”. With every compliment, Rutte put his hand on his heart, or nodded to the party chairman. When criticized, he looked away. Lilian Marijnissen of the SP wished him “good luck with everything that will come his way” but also said that his departure is “good news for the Netherlands”. Attje Kuiken of the PvdA was “angry last week”, but “that does not alter the fact that I want to show my respect”. Now that the cabinet is outgoing and Rutte is retiring after the elections, she also said, “the political sting is out and space and air are created again to do what is necessary in the coming weeks and months.”
When it was Rutte’s turn, he responded jokingly. “Extremely nice what has been said. But the box is still above the ground, I will not leave until there is a new cabinet, the organ is not yet playing.”
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