A possible collaboration between party leaders Dilan Yesilgöz (VVD) and Frans Timmermans (GL-PvdA) seems difficult. They believe that they have drifted too far from the political center. This becomes clear in the sixth episode of the podcast Frans, published on Wednesday.
In Timmermans’ eyes, the VVD has shifted too much to the right. Especially the participation of that party in the cabinet with the PVV exposes this, according to him. Timmermans hopes that right-wing parties, such as the VVD, will move a little more towards that center if GroenLinks-PvdA becomes large enough in the next elections.
The emphasis should be placed on the word ‘hopes’, because the VVD is certainly not making the movement desired by Timmermans. According to him, this is mainly due to Yesilgöz. “I clearly see her hand in that. Everything she puts on the table in our direction always has barbed wire around it,” he says in the podcast, which can be listened to below.
Remarkably: at the VVD congress last Saturday, Yesilgöz accused Timmermans of the same thing. “This merger seems to have ripped the PvdA out of the center of Dutch politics,” the VVD leader said in her speech. According to her, the cause lies with the “extreme, left-radical and activist part of the supporters of GroenLinks and PvdA”.
In the sixth and possibly last episode of Frans, the question is asked whether Timmermans is the right man in the right place. “Few politicians have such a polarized image in terms of support,” says Peter Kanne, researcher at Ipsos I&O, in the episode.
Timmermans is aware of that image. “I give myself completely in this work. That also provokes resistance,” he says. “I have to live with it. Because that is not going to change anymore. I am not going to learn a trick to push it in a different direction. I am too old for that now. And yes: take it or leave it.”
‘VVD is empty-handed’
Timmermans said in the campaign for the 2023 parliamentary elections that it would be good for the Netherlands if the VVD did not govern. “I still think so,” he says in the podcast.
There are constant digs back and forth. “You will be completely empty-handed with your right-wing cabinet,” Timmermans told Yesilgöz two weeks ago during the debate on the fall of the cabinet. “Timmermans has only been blaming others from day one,” Yesilgöz responded then. “It is an arrogance that is simply indescribable.”
Despite the jibes back and forth, and emphasizing the major differences that also exist, the two party leaders emphatically do not rule each other out. Something they do do with the PVV: they do not (anymore) enter into a cabinet with Geert Wilders’ party.