“If that attitude remains, I will soon be done with it”, Remkes said today in an explanation of his new job. To add that he expects the parties to act responsibly.
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The VVD celebrity started today with a tough job. Six months after the elections, there is still no prospect of a new cabinet, which means that serious work is now being done on a minority coalition.
To achieve this, Remkes spoke today with party leaders Mark Rutte (VVD), Sigrid Kaag (D66) and Wopke Hoekstra (CDA), because it is obvious that such a cabinet consists of a combination of those three parties. Tomorrow he will sit down with Lilianne Ploumen (PvdA), Jesse Klaver (GroenLinks) and Gert-Jan Segers (ChristenUnie). “I certainly do not rule out the possibility that I will come to speak with other parties later on,” said Remkes.
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Remkes is known as someone who can solve administrative crises, but according to him there is absolutely no guarantee of success. According to him, it is now up to the parties to move. To Kaag’s disappointment, CDA and VVD indicated last week that they did not want to form a cabinet containing GroenLinks and the PvdA, which makes a majority cabinet very complicated. Kaag, in turn, does not want to continue with the coalition partner ChristenUnie.
Uithaal Kaag
In addition, Kaag lashed out at Rutte in a lecture this week. She said, without naming the outgoing prime minister, that there are “the necessary lessons” to be learned when it comes to “humanity, trustworthiness, openness and effective governance.” “That also applies to those who shout the loudest how incredibly cool our country is.”
Remkes spoke with the D66 leader about this speech today. That happened ‘along the lines of the content’, said Kaag after the conversation, but she did not want to say more about it.
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Remkes wants to proceed carefully with the formation of the cabinet, but does not want to take more time than necessary. He does not want to set a deadline, ‘but in the course of October a lot should be clear’. There are pressing problems that require a solution. He also has other things to do. He was appointed acting governor in Limburg earlier this year, where he has a deep governance crisis to resolve.
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