“Of course: there are no guarantees of an outcome. But the Netherlands is now yearning for a breakthrough,” said Kaag. According to the D66 leader, it makes no sense to sit ‘in the foxhole of one’s own right’ and a new cabinet must tackle the problems with the climate, education and housing. “It shouldn’t be up to us.”
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D66 is thus taking the first step in reviving the stalled formation, says political reporter Roel Schreinemachers. “The party is getting over the previous reluctance to sit down with the ChristenUnie.”
rusty car
So far, D66 has refused to sit down with the ChristenUnie. Kaag even compared the ChristenUnie to a rusty parked car, referring to medical-ethical topics such as abortion and euthanasia, in which the two parties are far apart.
More than five weeks ago, Kaag again said he did not want to join the ChristenUnie. “The helm has to change,” Kaag told the AD. “It really has to be different. You do that with a different composition of the cabinet, with different choices and priorities.”
VVD and CDA wanted the ChristenUnie. D66 had a preference for PvdA and GroenLinks over the ChristenUnie. But VVD and, above all, the CDA did not want that.
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Impasse
The parties did not agree and now, six months after the elections, there is still no substantive negotiation on a new cabinet. Kaag now says about this: “I also want to take responsibility for our role. We are also to blame for the impasse.”
She said last week’s debate on the new budget for 2022 showed that the broad-centered parties could negotiate together. This freed up extra money for, among other things, teacher salaries in primary education.
Never move
Tomorrow informateur Johan Remkes will speak again with VVD, D66 and CDA. Today, Kaag says that she is lifting the blockade against the ChristenUnie, the party with which D66 mainly disagrees on a medical-ethical level.
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“A well-known wisdom in negotiations is that you should never be the first to move. But now let me be the first to blink. Whether it’s politically useful, I don’t know. I do know that it feels like the right thing. “We are prepared to make a concession. We are prepared to lift our political blockade. Let’s sit down with all six constructive parties – VVD, D66, CDA, PvdA, GroenLinks, ChristenUnie. Put the national interest first.”
The question now is whether VVD and CDA are also prepared to move, says Roel Schreinemachers, and to go along with D66’s demand to start negotiations with six parties.
“Now that D66 has dropped the objections against the CU, continuation of the current coalition is possible again. But if you start negotiations with six parties, there is of course also a chance that you will come to an agreement with PvdA and GroenLinks, and that is what VVD and CDA wanted to achieve. so far emphatically not.”
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