Wilders Won't Be PM; 'Extra Paraliamentary' Cabinet To Be Appointed

Geert Wildlers, leader of the right-wing populist Party for Freedom (PVV) announced on the evening of 13 March that he would not be the Netherlands' next prime minister after gov't formation talks reached an impasse. Instead, later today informatuer Kim Putters is set to report his findings to the House of Representatives. The recommendation is set to be for an 'extra parliamentary' cabinet, drawing in ministers from outside the four political parties involved in the negotiations. While he will not be sitting as PM, Wilders will have the opportunity to nominate the PM candidate.

• Negotiations between the PVV, the agrarian-populist Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), the centre-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the centrist 'good governance' New Social Contract (NSC) have been ongoing since the November 2023 legislative elections, in which the PVV won a plurality of seats.
• The leaders of the four parties will not sit in cabinet, but the fact that Wilders is not leading the gov't means that the VVD and NSC have agreed that their lawmakers could sit as ministers.
• It remains to be seen how stable an extra-parliamentary cabinet will be, given that it could include non-political figures. Moreover, the only party involved in the cabinet that has experience of governance is the VVD, whose former leader Mark Rutte has served as PM since 2010.
• Even without Wilders as PM, a gov't involving the PVV as its seniormost party will have a much more right-wing policy agenda than any gov't in recent Dutch history.