Rutte’s cabinet keeps grip on power as coalition
talks stall
March 18,
2024 Gordon Darroch
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/03/ruttes-cabinet-keeps-grip-on-power-as-coalition-talks-stall/
As the four
parties trying to form the next Dutch government slowly edge towards their
goal, the outgoing cabinet has been increasingly unshackled by the “caretaker”
label.
Officially
Mark Rutte’s team of ministers has not had a mandate to govern since July, when
the coalition broke down after failing to agree new rules to restrict inbound
migration.
The four
parties – VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie – won 41 seats in November’s election,
only four more than Geert Wilders’s anti-Islam PVV.
But while
Wilders and his prospective partners – VVD, NSC and BBB – have struggled to
overcome their mutual distrust and find a formula for a new government, the
caretaker administration has become increasingly coherent and assertive.
Three weeks
ago defence minister Hanke Bruins Slot announced the government had agreed a
10-year security treaty with Ukraine, despite protestations from Wilders, whose
party is reluctant to provide any further military or financial support. Last
week the PVV stayed away from a debate in parliament on the progress of the
war, while its senators recently voted against a financial aid package.
“Keep going”
Other
ministers are unwilling to wait for the coalition talks to conclude, such as
housing minister Hugo de Jonge, who recently sent a bill to parliament which
would allow his department to draw up a new programme of building projects
after July 1.
De Jonge
told NRC he was unprepared to allow the acute housing shortage to become worse
while the coalition talks stall. “We’re going to keep going until parliament
says ‘woah’,” he said. “Until then I say: ‘go’.”
The cabinet
has also taken key decisions such as shutting down the Groningen gas fields for
good and reforming the system by which students earn credits towards their
degrees in recent months.
Since the
fall of Rutte’s previous cabinet at the start of 2022, Dutch governments have
had a formal mandate from parliament for 543 days, but spent 615 days in a
caretaker capacity. Two of the last three annual budgets have been drawn up by
interim administrations.
Extra-parliamentary cabinet
The
right-wing parties are currently trying to form an “extra-parliamentary”
cabinet with some ministers from outside the political parties, rather than a
formal coalition.
Commentators
have described it as a risky experiment, but one minister told the FD last
week: “Effectively we already have an extra-parliamentary cabinet: us.”
One reason
the caretaker government has been able to continue legislating is that the last
parliament declared relatively few bills “controversial”, meaning they are off
limits until a new cabinet takes office.
Only 61
documents, nine of which relate to reforming the road tax system, have been
officially shelved by parliamentary order, giving ministers a free hand to make
decisions even on subjects that are known to be contentious.
Asylum law
One example
was the “spreading law” allowing the junior justice minister, Eric van der
Burg, to overrule local councils who failed to provide accommodation for asylum
seekers. The issue was a source of deep division within the last coalition and
particularly for the VVD party, where Van der Burg’s law was opposed by his
colleague, justice minister Dilan Yesilgöz.
As VVD
party leader, Yesilgöz tried to pass a motion in the Lower House calling on the
Senate not to vote on the law until the coalition talks had concluded. But
senators ignored the plea and approved the law, with the VVD group providing
the crucial votes after taking Van der Burg’s side.
The cabinet
also recently decided to award a €5.65 billion contract to build four new
submarines to the French state-backed shipbuilder Naval, passing over a bid by
Swedish manufacturer Saab that included the Dutch shipyard Damen.
“No” to nature restoration
But the
outgoing government has not had things all its own way. Last week nature
minister Christianne van der Wal agreed to vote against the European Union’s
law on nature restoration when it comes up at the council of ministers, after
MPs passed a motion calling on her to vote “no”.
Van der Wal
had supported the plans, which have been approved by the European Parliament,
but said she would respect the decision of parliament, albeit reluctantly.
The
proposed law, which sets a target for the EU to restore at least 20% of its
land and sea by the end of the decade, had already been watered down in the
wake of recent farmers’ protests.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário