Kaag made her statements in the HJ Schoo lecture that she was allowed to give this year. “The reality of the benefits affair and the corona crisis management mercilessly expose that a well-functioning democratic constitutional state is never a quiet possession,” she said. “That we have the necessary lessons to learn when it comes to humanity, reliability, openness and effective governance.”
‘Long linger’
“That also applies to those who shout the loudest how incredibly cool our ‘country’ is. For far too long we have let ourselves be lulled into the numbness of complacency by political myopia.”
Kaag also talked about the formation. She said she had the feeling that she was ‘moving on a different track’ than her opponents and colleagues in politics.
‘Too gullible’
She again mentioned that as far as she is concerned, the content could have been discussed further by VVD, CDA, GroenLinks and PvdA. “It is hard for me to comprehend that we are not yet at the table with the enthusiastic parties. And I think also for the people in the country. Maybe I was all too gullible all along. I thought it was serious, that work from the content.”
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As a solution for the stuck formation, she was not talking about a minority cabinet – as former informer Mariëtte Hamer advised on Friday – but about seeking a joint solution with six parties, in which she emphatically wants to involve the two left-wing parties.
Role for largest party
“A special role is reserved for the largest party. After a summer full of substantive work, potential allies are unfortunately excluded on non-substantive grounds. It is now the responsibility of the largest party to break the deadlock, increase the substantive support and the political to regain trust, especially from the left. That is also important for stability.”
Political reporter Floor Bremer follows Kaag’s HJ Schoo lecture. “She lashes out at Rutte a few times,” she says. “She also denounces the ‘content of The Hague hassle’ in this formation and the role that imaging plays. Something she says she does not feel comfortable with. But left or right, she has been part of this for more than five months now. play and her party participates just as hard in that image.”
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No outsider
According to Bremer, Kaag is no longer an outsider. “And she is now also fully involved as a party leader. With this she also seems to give herself an assignment when she says about good leadership ‘that it is looking beyond political self-preservation’ and that you must make yourself and your party subordinate to the public. interest’.
“The question is what this does for the atmosphere at the table, if in all likelihood Johan Remkes will make a new attempt as an informant,” says Bremer.
The HJ Schoo lecture is held annually at the beginning of the political year. Mark Rutte (2013), Ahmed Aboutaleb (2015) and Wopke Hoekstra (2019) preceded Kaag, among others. Last year the lecture was given by President of De Nederlandsche Bank Klaas Knot.
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