The GroenLinks-PvdA parliamentary group saw how Frans Timmermans initially struggled with his role as party leader. He had to get used to the manners in The Hague after working for ten years as a European Commissioner. Timmermans says this in the NU.nl podcast series Frans.
“I don’t want to disappoint you. And I see that I’m not good enough,” Timmermans says in the podcast series published on Wednesday about that initial period.
GroenLinks-PvdA won 25 seats in the last elections. Timmermans felt that his fellow party members were counting on him in big debates, but he feels that he fell short at some moments. “What I said was true, but it didn’t land well. Not enough.”
Timmermans calls the first six months after the elections therefore “suboptimal”. “I was worried about that because I thought: I’m disappointing you. And I know from the past that I can do much better than what I’m doing now.”
The criticism from the GroenLinks-PvdA group was not very direct or very harsh. “People are a bit more careful in that,” says Timmermans. “But you just notice it if you’re a bit sensitive. Like: ‘How did you think it went yourself?’ I did get that once.”
That Timmermans had to get used to it was mainly due to his previous job at the European Commission. There, he mainly had to govern and think in solutions. “But people in the office talk about problems at the coffee machine, not about solutions,” says Timmermans.
“I first have to make clear what the problem is, that the coalition has no solution, and that there is an alternative. But in the beginning, I was going to that alternative far too quickly,” says the GroenLinks-PvdA leader.
Unique glimpse into politically exceptional times
The new NU.nl podcast series Frans gives a unique insight into how Timmermans leads the opposition in politically exceptional times. Because how do you do that with an exceptionally right-wing cabinet?
Political reporter Edo van der Goot has been following him closely since the summer of 2024. During numerous conversations behind closed doors in his office to Heerlen, the place where he grew up and where he still feels most at home. But also beyond the Dutch border, because that still feels like familiar territory for Timmermans as former European Commissioner and former Minister of Foreign Affairs.
A political leader on the left should benefit from the chaos caused by an exceptionally right-wing cabinet. But does Timmermans also take that chance? Does he stand his ground in the sometimes fierce debates with PVV leader Geert Wilders? Is he ready to lead the opposition while he would have preferred to govern?
Amid all those developments in The Hague, GroenLinks-PvdA is on the eve of an historic decision. The members will determine during a congress on June 21 whether or not a new left-wing party should come. Timmermans is eager to lead that new party, but not everyone agrees. There is criticism of the plans and of Timmermans himself.
The first two episodes of Frans can be listened to from Wednesday via your favorite podcast app.