It would be a complicated musical chairs. Sigrid Kaag is deputy prime minister, so he should succeed Rutte, but she is finance minister. “It can’t be combined, so that really means that a new cabinet needs to be formed immediately and you should start training.”
It would be obvious that a party like ChristenUnie (which has been more outspoken against Rutte in the asylum debate) would not want to let itself go so far and has decided to hold out until the elections. But even there the question is whether the VVD will participate, thinks the professor. If the VVD were to leave, parties other than the opposition parties would have to negotiate with ChristenUnie, D66 and CDA. And it won’t be easy, predicts Van den Braak.
Balance
And now? It is true that serious issues such as nitrogen, housing and migration have been ‘parked’ because they will be declared controversial, but the country must be governed. And last but not least: there must be a budget for Prinsjesdag. ‘A budget must be presented on Prinsjesdag. There will have to be a cabinet with proposals. And the longer it takes, the more pressing it becomes to make decisions anyway.’
However, politics is unavoidable on Budget Day, for example with regard to a dossier such as incomes policy – a tax measure will have to be introduced for this. Despite this political charge, Van den Braak thinks it’s not impossible to get out of it. “I think the atmosphere in the cabinet has been such that they still want to work together.”