BBB uses government as a fruit machine, bickering everywhere and formation is again in a state of rest – Joop

There is a lot that is strange about the months-long negotiations about an ultra-right cabinet to be formed. For example, there is very little talking. If they are talking to each other at all, the negotiators will stop at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. As if they have an average office job. While in normal formation negotiations it is not unusual for people to work day and night. That is not the case now. In the coming days, there will even be a break and holiday again while problems are piling up in the country.

The AD notes that negotiating meetings of the forming parties rarely last longer than three hours, are only held four days a week and never take place in the evenings.

NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt, who has already been on sick leave for months due to a burnout, does not want to hear any criticism, the AD notes: “There has been no talking here for a few days now, no, but it is also very good not to talk to to talk among the four or eight of us and without all of you there,” he said, pointing to journalists.

BBB also appears to have a special approach to reality, according to De Haagse Stemming, the daily political newsletter of NRC, which warns the reader not to fall for the ‘humor’ that Van der Plas invariably uses as a diversionary maneuver to to get news. For example, about the calculations that the CPB will present in the coming days about the plans of the intended coalition.

“Of the four parties, only the VVD had its election manifesto calculated by the CPB. The rest did not find the estimates during the campaign interesting. BBB leader Caroline van der Plas still does not think so. When she was asked yesterday whether she had made the calculations, would accept if they did not suit her, she replied: “We’ll see what happens. Those are if-then questions. If my aunt had had a penis, it would have been my uncle.” The poor joke catches the eye, but much more important is what Van der Plas content-related say. She casually says that she still has to see whether she will accept the conclusions of the research that she herself commissioned. Admittedly, everyone knows that the CPB calculations are not flawless. But Van der Plas’s attitude is also populism at its finest. She apparently only considers the calculation insightful if it suits her.”

Van der Plas uses the scientific agencies as a fruit machine, put money in and see if you can win something. If not, ignore it.

The formation process is also dragging on because all kinds of other matters require attention. For example, Geert Wilders has his mother’s funeral and then travels to his wife’s mother country to attend a conference in Hungary of ultra-right autocrats who specialize in breaking down the rule of law. In this case, foreign countries take precedence for Wilders.

Meanwhile, there is also a conflict about Hugo de Jonge’s rental law, which should make housing affordable. BBB and VVD want to abolish that law, Trouw writes:

It seems almost certain that the rental law will receive support from a parliamentary majority on Thursday. But for BBB the battle is not over: the law still has to pass the Senate. “Anything can still happen,” says BBB Senator Eric Kemperman. He points out that the law will not be on the agenda of the Senate ‘at the earliest in the second half of May’. “I still have a lot of questions about it, especially given all the amendments that may be adopted.”

Formateur Van Zwol claims that “decisions will be made” in the week of May 6. In the meantime, the conflicts seem to be piling up. Also at BBB, which is increasingly showing itself to be a supporter of the PVV. For example, the agricultural organization LTO now advises to reduce the gigantic livestock herd in the Netherlands because it is the only solution to the tsunami of manure that is suffocating the country. NSC and VVD are happy with the advice that has been presented by all experts for a long time. However, BBB does not care about reality.

Caroline van der Plas was ‘not amused’ about LTO Nederland’s plan and asked the farmers’ organization for clarification. For the time being, BBB does not want to know anything about shrinkage, not even voluntarily. “LTO Netherlands is sending a signal from the farmers, but this is not what the farmers want,” is what can be heard in that party. And this attitude of BBB leads to frustrations among VVD and NSC: “Is that party there for the farmers, or not?”, says one of those involved. According to them, the time for just saying ‘no, no, no’ is really over. In recent years, the government has done ‘everything it can’ to help farmers ‘get out of their shit’. A pot of 25 billion euros has been created to buy out farmers in a gentle way. “And now an ice-cold restructuring is threatened,” says one of the negotiators. “If we don’t do anything, farmers will soon no longer be able to pay for their livestock.”

Looking away and wishful thinking, that seems an appropriate title for the ‘outline agreement’, if it ever comes about.