Soon the D66 ministers will be gone, but the D66 officials are still there. What then?

Rutte IV’s downfall seemed imminent. Next comes the election campaign and formation. It will soon be nine months before the BBB reaches an agreement with its partners on the next cabinet.

Meanwhile, the country is in the hands of officials. Nor should it be the case that Sigrid Kaag’s party will continue to rule for another nine months with all the D66 officials in The Hague. (In 2017, according to a survey conducted by Local Administration Already the most popular party among civil servants; This will not change in the 2021 parliamentary elections).

Outgoing ministers and civil servants must stop controversial new policies. I almost wrote: “Once the government lost confidence,” but Rutte-IV has already lost this confidence.

Officials should have warned climate ministers

Nitrogen policy is controversial, and if Minister Christiane van der Waal doesn’t want to see that, officials should stop it. This will hurt. Not only to the outgoing minister, but also to her assistants. They were asked to realize that for a long time they were blind to the arguments of Arnott Jaspers in his book Nitrogen trap. And they remained blind because they are Norwegian Refugee Council or their Volkskrant He did not take this book seriously and gave all credence to the Six Climate Ministers.

Alarm bells should have gone off when it emerged earlier that the state of North Rhine-Westphalia spends no money on nitrogen at all, and that Dutch accounts do not want to distinguish between one-off or permanent nitrogen deposits. Until then, officials had to warn the six climate ministers.

You and I weren’t there, and we don’t know how it went, but after the fall of the government we have to go on with these failed civil servants. Is she old enough to tell the outgoing minister van der Waal that the amounts not released into the nitrogen fund will be frozen until a new minister gets her new policy approved by the new parliament?

The same goes for climate policy. If officials have the integrity, they should tell the six climate ministers that the climate fund has also been put on hold for new plans not yet approved. Painful to all the discerning newspaper readers who nodded their approval on the first-class train on their way home last week to a weighty comment about Minister Cetin. the Norwegian Refugee CouncilThe editor-in-chief wrote to hope ‘that his enthusiasm [voor nog eens 28 miljard] It extends to citizens and businesses “and praise ministers and civil servants: the success of the Cabinet in bringing about unity is to be commended.”

When this unity breaks out, the cabinet subsequently falls, and Maurice de Hond publishes his poll a few days later, it will again show that there is little unity in the twelve districts. Perhaps the higher-ups should only be there for a few months The telegraph And get a (free!) subscription to Geesje Rotgers’ Agri Facts newsletter. I worked for a short time at a Swiss university where respected travelers in the paper ask about ‘NZZ with…Then the tabloid Blake Folded in the quality newspaper New Zurich Zeitung – They can secretly in the first degree Blake Read on and find out what the mountain yodelers are all about. Admins idea: stop The telegraph in your Norwegian Refugee Council.

The D66 officials who advised last month on a possible ban on opposition media will have to do everything they can to stop partisan politics after the collapse of Rutte-IV. This, of course, is always their duty, but then it applies all the more because otherwise the election campaign will become more embittered. It would also be better if the House of Representatives Vera Bergkamp (D66) gives way to Vice President Martin Bosma (PVV). He has a higher degree of independence and is therefore more capable of running the House of Representatives in a difficult transitional period.

Remedy: transfer of senior officials

What if senior officials refuse to properly time until a new minister issues amended marching orders? Then it is certainly possible to transfer them. We should not want an ax day for senior officials, as is the case in the United States and perhaps later this month in Turkey, every time the government changes hands. But it should be possible to strike a corrective blow at the officials who know better than the voters and who continue to pursue their D66 policy, even when climate ministers are out and voters want otherwise.

Fortunately, this is not difficult at all. I refer to two Case studies Twenty years ago. In the fall of 2002 I spoke with Frank de Graaf who graduated in constitutional law and is now a member of the State Council. As the Minister of Defense of the VVD in the second Kok government (1998-2002), he had big problems with the public servant P.A. Srebrenica.

“I should have stepped in as soon as I took office and moved this guy over, just as you did,” said Frank. Because a few months before we talked about civil servant B. , de Graaf saw my character as a Member of Parliament Case Study.

This is a senior civil servant I had recommended for transfer in 2002 when I took over as Minister of Health. Prime Minister Balkenende only had to confirm in Parliament that his minister saw no possibility of working well with this civil servant. (There were several reasons; one was that prior to the 2002 election, the civil servant predicted healthcare disasters if the CDA, VVD, and LPF were to govern together.)

In the Netherlands, the Minister may not dismiss a civil servant. However, he may immediately appoint a senior civil servant for the transfer if, in the opinion of the Minister, there is a mistrust. In my case, I had previously been informed of the transfer of my approval in three meetings with the relevant Director General of the Interior, the Secretary General of Health and the Prime Minister-designate. All three shared my opinion and gave my proposal the green light.

We cannot take moral action for senior officials. But we know D66’s siding Norwegian Refugee CouncilAnd De VolkskrantAnd devotion and public broadcasting. If public opinion shifts further, the media will probably move in, albeit slowly. Volkskrant For example, it would take the time to rearrange the 55 columnists.

straight into the refrigerator

But we can ask the civil servants to make immediately – from the day of the fall of Rutte IV – a careful effort to suspend all controversial new policies. And to choose a clear position through which they can win the confidence of the new ministers coming.

It is crucial that the House of Representatives have a competent and independent speaker: to ensure that Peter Umtzigt and his 149 colleagues have every opportunity to keep a close eye on everything.

Edward Pomphoff Former Professor of Economics at EUR, Nyenrode, and Monash University. In 2002 he was Deputy Prime Minister in Balkenende’s first government.

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