Timmermans continues his attempt to approach Omtzigt, with whom he ‘feels at home’

It was supposed to be a Prime Minister’s debate on Sunday evening on RTL, and two of the three party leaders on stage thought that was a very good idea. Frans Timmermans of GroenLinks-PvdA and Dilan Yesilgöz of the VVD have done everything in recent days to be seen as the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands. Timmermans visited German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Yesilgöz had a conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron. But Pieter Omtzigt of NSC continues to avoid the question of whether he himself will become prime minister if his party wins. What matters to him is “the implementation of the election programme”. Although he won’t say no again this Sunday evening.

There are still two and a half weeks until the elections and there is a lot at stake for these three: the three of them are highest in the polls. One mistake or a strikingly weak moment can easily lead to a loss in those polls and there is not much time left to make up for that. And so you saw how tense they were upon entering. During the commercial breaks they kept leaving the studio to consult with their campaign team. In order not to let other campaign teams listen in, Yesilgöz typed a note on her phone to her closest aides during the second break, which was captured by a photographer: “We’ve had the hardest time.”

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the live blog returns about the RTL debate between Omtzigt, Yesilgöz and Timmermans

Just before that, she had challenged Pieter Omtzigt to a one-on-one debate. She wanted to know from him why Omzigt, who loves numbers and arithmetic so much, does not have his own election program calculated by the Central Planning Bureau. Now, according to her, that program was “a menu without prices.” “It is impossible to say where you want to pay the bill.”

It was the first time that Yesilgöz was so critical of Omtzigt’s plans. At the start of the debate, she herself had said that in order to pay for the VVD plans, she wanted to cut back on development cooperation. Timmermans responded with: “Yes, if we use the little money we spend on that to close the deficits in the Netherlands. It has to remain somewhat realistic.”

Timmermans continues to seek rapprochement with Omtzigt

In the RTL debate, Timmermans clearly has much less difficulty being fierce against Yesilgöz than against Omtzigt, with whom he had already stood on stage last week in a self-organized debate of more than an hour and a half. Even then it was noticeable that he mainly seemed to be seeking rapprochement with Omtzigt’s party. He does that again on Sunday evening. “I agree with Mr Omtzigt,” he says at the start of the debate. “We have to build more and very quickly.”

And if he can choose someone for a one-on-one debate, he chooses Omtzigt, whom he lets talk about his election manifesto for several minutes. And later in the debate, when it comes to nitrogen, Timmermans says that he will still have to “discuss a lot with Mr Omtzigt”, but he does “feel at home” with his ideas.

But is it mutual? Omtzigt reacts coolly to the overtures, and focuses a lot on Yesilgöz. But certainly not to say how at home he feels with the VVD. As is often the case, he starts talking about what went wrong in the thirteen years that the VVD was the largest party: with the gas in Groningen, the benefits scandal. Although he adds that “at least as much” will probably go wrong if his party participates in a government. Although he hopes, he says, that “adjustments” will be made more quickly than in the time of Mark Rutte.

Succession Rutte

RTL had prepared a video about Rutte, with highs and lows from his long political career. After all, the entire evening revolved around the question of who would succeed him. Pieter Omtzigt then says that he will miss Rutte’s optimism. Frans Timmermans also mentions that optimism and says that he wants to “be inspired” by it. Rutte, says Timmermans, is “a really nice guy”, although politically, he says a few times, he disagrees with him.

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‘Voters don’t know where they stand’

Dilan Yesilgöz (VVD) and Geert Wilders (PVV) prior to the NOS Radio debate of NPO Radio 1 that took place on Friday in The Hague.” class=”dmt-article-suggestion__image” src=”https://images.nrc.nl/1G_m9on_oYeSQ66xOHXSnyfcCKA=/160×96/smart/filters:no_upscale()/s3/static.nrc.nl/bvhw/files/2023/11/data107586589-960ded.jpg”/>

And then it is Dilan Yesilgöz’s turn and what is striking: she says nothing nice about Rutte at all. She says what she has said many times in recent weeks: “This is a new chapter. There is a new leader before you with a different story, and partly also with a different vision.”

Earlier in the debate, when it was about the housing market and she was asked whether more construction could have been done when the VVD was in power, she had said that she preferred not to look back. “Because that is of no use to people. I want to look ahead.”

Omtzigt wants that too, but not when it comes to the premiership again. When he is asked how he plans to keep fit as Prime Minister, he first laughs hard and long. Then he says he likes to go to the gym two to three times a week. And the question is, what did he learn from his burnout? “That you should rest on time.” And sometimes you have to “take it back a notch.”

Is that possible as Prime Minister? And whether he might leave that to someone else? After the debate, at the exit, he says: “We have no clarity about that at the moment.”

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