The Netherlands’ new cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Dick Schoof, was sworn in by the country’s King Willem-Alexander at the royal residence in The Hague on Tuesday and officially took office, Euractiv reports.
Far-right leader Geert Wilders, the clear winner of last year’s general election, will not himself be part of the government, but his shadow will loom large as he continues to lead his Freedom Party in parliament.
Wilders only managed to strike a coalition deal with three other conservative parties in May after he abandoned his bid to become prime minister.
The cabinet will be headed by independent and unelected Dick Schoof, a career bureaucrat who headed the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD and held a senior post in the justice ministry.
Schoof was nominated to allay concerns about Wilders’ anti-Islam rhetoric among his main coalition partners – outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s VVD and the centrist NSC. But Wilders has said he will not change his tone. He has chosen hardliners from his party to represent him in the cabinet, including several people who in the past have argued that the government is actively working to replace the Dutch population with immigrants.
The new government will have to stick to an agreement reached by the four parties that seeks to limit immigration and exemptions from EU asylum and environmental rules.
New government expects budget deficit
Schoof and his team are expected to present detailed plans by September. They will not have much room for spending as the eurozone’s fifth-largest economy experienced a strong post-pandemic boom last year that ended in recession.
Unemployment will remain relatively low, but the coalition agreement is expected to push the government’s budget deficit close to the EU’s maximum of 3 per cent.
The new government will be the first since 2010 without Mark Rutte, who will become NATO secretary-general in October.
The Netherlands’ longest-serving prime minister left office on Sunday after making a televised speech in which he stressed the need for co-operation. He said from his already cleared-out office:
The Netherlands has a unique tradition of compromise and of taking responsibility, and it’s important that we keep that. Together we are stronger than alone.
