According to Brekelmans, the VVD will also not participate in a cabinet with CDA leader Henri Bontenbal as prime minister, if Frans Timmermans is also part of it. According to the outgoing minister and candidate MP, that would also be ‘a left-wing cabinet’, and the VVD does not want to participate in that.
Clear Dilan Yesilgöz: VVD not in Timmermans cabinet
Brekelmans made these statements in the broadcast of Café Kockelmann. This focused on the interview that De Telegraaf published earlier this week with VVD leader Yesilgöz. In that interview she indicated that she did not want to join a cabinet in which Timmermans would be Prime Minister. “Then there will be a left-wing cabinet, and we will not be in it,” she told this newspaper.
Brekelmans expanded that statement on Friday evening. He stated that the VVD will also go into opposition if the CDA provides the prime minister — in the person of Henri Bontenbal — and decides to govern together with GL/PvdA. “A cabinet with Prime Minister Bontenbal in which Mr Timmermans sits is also a left-wing cabinet,” said Brekelmans. “The same applies to that,” he added, referring to Yesilgöz’s earlier words. Later he also added D66 to this list.
Broader support for the course Yesilgöz has taken
This means there is broader support within the liberal party for the course that Yesilgöz has taken. Brekelmans is considered one of the ‘crown princes’ within the VVD and is seen as a potential successor to Yesilgöz, if she leaves the political scene after a disappointing election result.
Brekelmans has often spoken out about the party’s direction in the past. For example, in 2023 he advocated closer cooperation with Geert Wilders’ PVV. The VVD has now distanced itself from that idea: the party no longer wants to govern with Wilders, after he left the Schoof cabinet earlier this year.