What does NRC | This weak treasury had already fallen clinically before

In this century, only one Dutch cabinet has managed to stop far behind. This was the Rutte II (2012-2017) cabinet from VVD and PvdA. In light of this, the fall of the Root 4 government on Friday 7 July should come as no surprise. However, this government crisis is remarkable because this time the Prime Minister himself put an end to his government. Prime Minister Mark Root (VVD), inventor of the “Goat Trail”, suddenly declares that part of the asylum policy is non-negotiable. Namely, the arrival of asylum seekers should be slowed by prohibiting family reunification for a specific category of refugee. The VVD euphemistically calls this the “pause button for family members”. A measure that contradicts various humanitarian treaties, and the effect of which, according to experts, will be minimal. However, Rota was steadfast, knowing that the youngest coalition partner, Cristinone, for whom family values ​​are important, could never agree to this. Behold: a crisis and new elections.

Perhaps the prime minister thought about the time when the Christian Democratic Alliance, led by Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, got rid of coalition partner VVD in 1989. He brought down his second government because VVD leader Joris Voorhof opposed the abolition of travel allowances. Just as travel allowance wasn’t the real cause of Lubbers II’s cabinet downfall, neither is Rutte IV’s “pause button.”

This government had already fallen clinically on March 15th of this year when Caroline van der Plas (BBB) ​​won the county council election. As a result, the BBB has recently become the largest party in the Senate. This upset the political balance in The Hague and destabilized the already faltering government. With this result in the end.

It is a little naive now to accuse the VVD of “cynical power politics.” It is not a moral issue but an administrative issue. Politics is about accumulating and retaining power, through democratic means, in order to achieve as many of the ideals of the electorate as possible. It is commendable that Rota briefly sheds his guise of overseeing the operation and clearly shows his true appearance as a politician with power. Because darkness is the source of much of the citizens’ mistrust of politicians.

If you extract the thousands of excuses that Rutte made for everything and everyone in the past year, the legacy of his now outgoing government is rather meager: solutions to major social problems have failed: nitrogen, Groningen, the settlement of the supplementary issue, the housing crisis, care for the elderly … list The wait is longer than the morning traffic jam on the A1 between Apeldoorn and Amsterdam on a rainy day.

It would be good if Parliament allowed the interim government to finish its work with all those painful files and not announce many controversial issues. Rutte IV’s government was not the cabinet for major solutions, but rather the council for current affairs. Let her keep it going as long as possible.