The conservative Dutch sovereigntist Geert Wilders, whose PVV party came out on top by a 12-seat margin in last week’s national elections, hopes to announce a new ‘scout’ on Tuesday. In the Dutch parliamentary system, a ‘scout’ is assigned the job of looking into viable governing coalitions.
Last Friday, Wilders had appointed PVV Senator Gom van Strien, who was supposed to start holding talks with party leaders in the House of Representatives starting Monday.
Van Strien resigned on what would be his first day following two NRC Handelsblad reports that revealed that a former employer had accused him of fraud.
While van Strien denied the allegations, he chose resignation so that any perceived lack of integrity would not risk the success of the coalition talks.
It is a setback for Wilders, but the PVV leader has a replacement in mind for van Strien and has already spoken with that individual, he told Dutch media.
Wilder’s candidate of choice must however first see approval from the other party chairmen. He is to present his new scout at their meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, November 28th.
While Dutch coalition talks usually take several months, this latest iteration might become one the most arduous in Dutch political history. While he received an impressive 24% of the vote, Wilders—who seeks the premiership— needs the support from the leftist GroenLinks-PvdA (25 seats) and the (nominally) center-right VVD (24 seats) to form a government.
The VVD Party of outgoing prime minister Mark Rutte on Friday ruled out serving in a Wilders-led Cabinet, though it said it would consider lending outside support.
A flash poll published last Thursday, the day after the elections, showed that 84% of VVD voters see no issues with entering into a Wilders Cabinet, with 65% even agreeing to the PVV leader becoming prime minister, replacing Mark Rutte.
