Today is a new day of formation! The ladies and gentlemen of the planned coalition are back from the Christmas recess. What that means? They are going to negotiate. Again. Wilders has withdrawn a few proposed laws, and now they are going more in depth. But there is still one small problem: The VVD insists that it only wants to tolerate.
According to The Telegraph, some real progress was made before the Christmas recess. Geert Wilders' decision to withdraw three controversial but old PVV bills - they had been tabled in 2017-2019 - results from that. It is a helping hand to the parties the PVV is negotiating with - but also a practical step towards a possible Wilders I cabinet.
Group chairmen Wilders, Yesilgöz, Omtzigt and Van der Plas and their seconds Fleur Agema (PVV), Sophie Hermans (VVD), Eddy van Hijum (NSC) and - alternately - Mona Keijzer and Henk Vermeer (BBB) met this morning for the second phase of the talks. That phase is basically still about questions such as "how do we deal with the Constitution? But other topics will also be discussed - topics that are already more directly linked to the actual formation of a new coalition.
Yet there is still something of a problem. The VVD continues to insist that it does not want direct co-regulation. Yes, the liberals want to tolerate a coalition led by the PVV - and thus cooperate somewhat - but entering a real official coalition with Wilders? Yesilgöz is still not up for that. Or so she says.
This is annoying because such a tolerated coalition does not seem very likely. After all, NSC does not want to govern if the VVD only tolerates. In other words, if Yesilgöz sticks to her toleration plan, then only PVV and BBB would really want to govern. VVD and NSC would then possibly tolerate. That, of course, is by no means stable.
But wait, there is more! Because BBB has already made it known that although the party is happy to govern, it does not want to do so if it is the only party that is officially part of the coalition with the PVV. Thus, if NSC and VVD suffer together, BBB does not want to govern.
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What this means? It is far from a done deal. Geert Wilders and Fleur Agema still face a very tough assignment. The old cartel parties (NSC is of course just the CDA 2.0, so it is completely ridiculous to pretend that NSC is a real new party) continue to play cheap political games.
Therefore it is more important than ever that we stay on top of it. VVD and NSC must be forced to enter into this coalition. They cannot get away with a "we want to tolerate;
No, no, no. There must be government. And quickly some.