The entire opposition in the House of Representatives is furious because the coalition parties do not want a plenary parliamentary debate on the results of the provincial elections. GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver had asked for this.
The elections have triggered a political landslide, with a huge victory for the BBB and a loss for the four coalition parties, the leaders of the opposition parties all said.
VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie think it is too early for a debate. The CDA first wants to recover from the “thump” of the enormous loss. The coalition parties also believe that an interpretation debate about the elections belongs in the provinces, and not in the plenary hall of the House of Representatives. This led to laughter from the opposition benches.
“The election results have left no one unmoved,” said VVD MP Bente Becker. But the provinces, she says, are the first to act. D66 and ChristenUnie also see no need. The substantive themes can be discussed in committees, said CU MP Don Ceder.
This led to disbelief among the opposition parties. “This is unbelievable. The coalition loses ten seats and the coalition does not want a debate,” said PVV leader Geert Wilders. It looks like the coalition parties will lose 10 of their current 32 seats in the Senate. Given the “political landslide”, the Party for the Animals also thinks a parliamentary debate is appropriate.
‘This is precisely why people have lost faith in politics’
Caroline van der Plas (BBB) wholeheartedly agrees. The fact that the coalition does not want to have these kinds of debates again and again is precisely the reason why citizens have lost confidence in politics, she says. She also said that voters often stay at home out of dissatisfaction with politics, but that this time they did vote. The turnout for the Provincial Council elections this year is 58.4 percent. In 2019, that was 56.2 percent.
Now that the coalition has had “incredible trouble”, the House should definitely debate it next week, Henk Nijboer of the PvdA also thinks. SP member Jasper van Dijk thinks it is “cowardly” that the prime minister and ministers say in all the media that they have to do something with the election results, but do not want to discuss this with the House.
Because Klaver did not get a parliamentary majority behind his proposal, he asked for a roll call vote. He hopes that a majority will still agree to a debate. The vote will be held at 7 p.m.
