According to Nieuwsuur, the scouts had a confidential conversation with then Speaker of the House Khadija Arib shortly after their appointment. They would have already asked for more time on March 19 to find out whether Omtzigt (then CDA deputy, now independent deputy, ed.) would perhaps have obtained more votes than CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra. On March 26, it turned out that Omtzigt received a lot of votes, albeit less than Hoekstra.
work elsewhere
After Ollongren was photographed on March 25 with notes bearing the iconic ‘Omtzigt location, function elsewhere’, a political row erupted. Jorritsma and Ollongren returned their posts a week after Prime Minister Rutte had to leave the field. It was he who had mentioned Omtzigt during the first exploratory talks, but initially denied it.
In a reaction on Twitter, Omtzigt says it was “abundantly obvious” that there was a lot of talk about him after the fall of the government. “The scouts always denied it, even me, but it was always very implausible.” Omtzigt also says that this touches the heart of Dutch politics: “it is about power games and not about solving the most important and difficult issues”. Omtzigt refers to the story of subsidies, migration, Groningen and the terrible housing shortage.