The Prime Minister has the floor, with a small file and two hands outstretched

On the eve of the second day of the General Political Reflections, Mark Rutte lays out his tools. That could be a pair of scissors, magnifying glass, matches, sieve, mirror, hammer, tube, hand of sand, cleaning cloth, you name it. You better start well prepared for the most important political debate of the year.

He won’t need any of that this time. Patience and flexibility are in his standard package, he cannot forget. Just like two outstretched hands, not enough for such a long debate and so many benevolent opponents. One attribute comes in handy, although he could have done without it: a file to remove the last sharp edges everywhere.

“Would it become other General Political Reflections?” Is the question with which he starts the day. There is also a promise: ‘I will answer in an atmosphere of cooperation. That’s how I remember the atmosphere of yesterday ‘- during the contributions of Geert Wilders (PVV) and Thierry Baudet (FvD) he might have been elsewhere with his thoughts.

And yes, it will be another day. Wilders comes forward three times to tell him that in ten years he had made ‘a gigantic mess’ of it and that the Netherlands is a beautiful country, but with ‘a terrible prime minister’ and a ‘dirty dirty cabal’ as the judiciary. A reproach that Rutte used for the second time – he previously used it in the faux pas of Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus – evokes a certain leniency. Only when, challenged by Wilders, he feels compelled to defend the magistracy, Rutte switches to a more ardent register than pure craftsmanship.

The vicious attacks he will have to endure are therefore immediately mentioned. One passage, sometime in the afternoon, summarizes the debate. Rutte gives SP, GroenLinks and PvdA a compliment for their counter-budget. He does not go into it in terms of content, but he finds their effort highly appreciated. And then: ‘There is 9 billion euros that you want to spend differently. But that means that for 327 billion you make the same choice as the government. ‘ First master Rutte who hands out the points, then moral master Rutte who concludes that there is great unanimity.

Mood of the moment

The day before it looked different. All major parties had used the corona crisis to look a little further ahead. ‘Fair trade, strong government, less dependence’, Klaas Dijkhoff (VVD) had suggested. ‘A cooperative revolution’, Pieter Heerma (CDA) preached. Jesse Klaver (GroenLinks) heard the end of economism, Lilian Marijnissen (SP) a course that her party has long supported. ‘Perhaps you challenge me to add reflections about the longer term myself,’ says Rutte early on. It will hardly happen. Although the prime minister shows that he senses the mood of the moment; he promises not to use terms such as ‘run the toko’ and ‘de bv Nederland’ – his favorite terms for many years.

These General Political Reflections are a hybrid event. Because it is partly a corona debate, but without Corona Minister Hugo de Jonge; and now that such debates are held regularly, that is a bit of a dime a dozen. Because the cause is a freely floating budget, which is rare due to all the uncertainties – ‘This feels like dancing on the Titanic’, is the characterization of Lodewijk Asscher (PvdA). Because the atmosphere does not cooperate: no pack of faction leaders jostling each other around the interruption microphones, but a one and a half meter debate with all the pleasantness that entails.

Below that lies the political current affairs that should stir up the debate. There will be elections in six months, the urge to profile can be great. But the unanimity from the early days of the corona crisis still lingers on: this is a challenge that we take on together. Only Wilders avoids that consensus, but in a country that is largely satisfied with its prime minister, his criticism takes on caricatural features.

Stifled resistance

For a prime minister who will be celebrating his ten-year anniversary in a month and whose party peaks in the polls, such a debate does not have to be difficult: keep all options open, because the coalition in the Senate is in the minority, but also to the somewhat more distant future to be able to forge another coalition. So Rutte does what he can do best for a day: he spreads his arms and stifles the resistance. And where that fails, the planer comes in handy.

Negotiations are opened on the spot. With Heerma about money for the food banks, with Corrie van Brenk (50Plus) about a visit guarantee for nursing homes, with Heerma and the left-wing opposition about the housing market, with Asscher to change the job guarantee in corona time into a work guarantee.

If the distance turns out to be more difficult to bridge, Rutte is upset. ‘Oops. That difference is bigger than I thought ‘, he says when Klaver thinks that the Wopke-Wiebesfonds should contribute to reducing CO as far as GroenLinks is concerned.₂emissions. But even then the conclusion is: “I can go a long way.” The differences remain insurmountable only with regard to the investment discount for companies and salaries in healthcare.

‘A prime minister who can rule from left to right has lost his own identity’, Wilders observes in the second term. Rutte will shrug his shoulders about it. He has never been caught worrying about his identity.

The group leaders are very satisfied with these considerations; a lot of vision has been displayed, they say almost in unison. Rutte will also be satisfied. In a debate in which a file is enough, he likes to accept that vision.

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