Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party (PVV) won the snap parliamentary elections, but Wilders announced he will not seek the position of prime minister.
Political parties in the Netherlands reached a final agreement on Tuesday to form a right-wing government, according to a statement by Geert Wilders on the social media platform X. This was reported by the TASR news agency, citing Reuters.
“We have reached an agreement,” Wilders stated to the media on Tuesday. Negotiations on the distribution of government positions lasted nearly four weeks.
In the November snap elections, PVV secured 37 seats in the 150-member parliament. Last month, the party agreed to form a coalition with three other conservative parties: the right-liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the conservative New Social Contract (NSC), and the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB).
Wilders announced that he would not run for the premiership to facilitate the formation of this coalition. The prime minister is set to be Dick Schoof, a former head of the AIVD intelligence service and the NCTV counter-terrorism office, who is not affiliated with any political party. Details about other government positions are not immediately known. Potential ministers will have to face questions in the lower house of the Dutch parliament before the new government is sworn in by King Willem-Alexander.
