“It’s a horrible day,” he said without hot cloths on Friday Dick Schoof, Prime Minister in Functions from the Netherlands, after the head of Foreign Affairs, Caspar Veldkamp, presented his resignation when blocking the government the adoption of additional sanctions against Israel. The resignation of Veldkamp, seconded by four other ministers – health, interior, education and social affairs – and four state secretaries of the same training, new social contract (NSC), aggravates the fragility of the current right coalition in the country. And it constitutes the largest crisis of a government in Europe – although in this case it is outward two months of the elections – caused by the massacre of the Israeli government of Benjamín Netanyahu in Gaza.
The Netherlands Executive, constituted in July 2024 by four groups, headed by the Party for Freedom (PVV) of the leader ultra, Geert Wilders, three was reduced to three when he left the cabinet last June by not getting the hardening of asylum policies. When the government is left in the minority with only three groups in its bosom, elections had to be convened – they will be held on October 29 – and therefore is now in functions. After those that happened on Friday there are only two coalition partners, which add up to only 32 seats in a 150 parliament.
Veldkamp’s march occurred in the course of a Council of Ministers dedicated to discussing the possibility of imposing sanctions against Israel for the announced attack on the city of Gaza and its plans to build illegal homes in the West Bank. The head of Foreign Affairs, 61, is an experienced diplomat who was ambassador to Israel and Greece, and raised at the meeting the possibility of applying at least one boycott to products from illegal settlements in the West Bank.
The other two members of the coalition-the Popular Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVDs) and the Camosino-Ciudadano Movement (BBB)-expressed their doubts. The first, considering that these types of measures must be agreed at European scale. The second ended up opposing himself completely, and then Veldkamp left the room. Shortly after he declared before the cameras that he had proposed “additional measures”, but that “the concessions” within the government had not been “enough” and that this meant limiting his ability to maneuver to take a direction that he considered “necessary.” He then resigned.
Dick Schoof, who has seen the government he headed for the second time, asked to “reflect on the current political situation” and made votes for “continuing to do everything necessary in the country’s interest.” In the background, however, several disagreements beat. Veldkamp wanted to act faster against Israel, but the search for a commitment, of the pact, which characterizes the Dutch policy, delayed and diluted at the same time a possible agreement.
After the announcement of their resignation, the VVD and the BBB said surprised, and annoying, which in reality a consensus was arriving. The idea of launching a boycott from the Netherlands was considered, the idea of launching the European Union road. In the NSC of Veldkamp the version is another. They indicate that, while things worsen at full speed in the strip, he had the feeling that in these conditions he could not submit to Congress the measures he had promised.
The Government, already with two parties, will continue and have to look for substitutes for the nine positions that have resigned. For its part, the NSC, which was presented as the defender of the Rule of Law and the Democratic Order, has lost bellows in the surveys in recent weeks and runs the risk of seeing its 19 seats very small. Schoof has assured that “respects Veldkamp’s decision” and his own, but added that he seems “quite irresponsible” what they have done. “And that is to say gently,” he said Friday night. Now you will have to decide how to move forward with an executive who was already unstable and is plunged into even greater disorder.
Meanwhile, the polls throw striking figures. According to the one carried out on April 15 by the IPSOS consultant, only 15% of the voters are satisfied with the current Dutch government. The figure was already the lowest of the last decade, two months before the frightened of Wilders, and four of the current crisis. On June 6, just three days after the coalition of four was reduced to three, most voters held Wilders, but this did not translate into a loss of seats, again according to Ipsos. If elections are held at that time, the PVV would be the most voted game again.
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