Queen ignores right-wing party wishes, appoints new negotiator

Queen Beatrix has ignored the wishes of the three right-wing party leaders and appointed Herman Tjeenk Willink, deputy president of the government’s most senior advisory body the Council of State, to lead a ‘short intermediate’ round of coalition talks.

On Tuesday the leaders of the Christian Democrats, VVD Liberals and anti-Islam PVV said they wanted to resume their negotiations, which were halted on Friday when PVV leader Geert Wilders dropped out.
Before that, VVD leader Mark Rutte had let it be known he wanted to write a solo coalition agreement which other parties could then sign up to.
Speed
But the queen has asked Tjeenk Willink to talk to all the party leaders over the next couple of days to assess the situation. He has been appointed ‘because events have moved so quickly’, a spokesman for the queen said.
Tjeerk Willink was involved as negotiator earlier in the cabinet talks when he recommended the formation of a ‘purple plus’ cabinet involving the VVD, Labour, GroenLinks and D66. Those talks flopped amid divisions over spending cuts.
Meeting
Rutte also spent three hours with the queen on Tuesday evening. Some pundits say he was summoned as a rap over the knuckles for apparently cutting the queen out of the equation by preparing to reopen talks on a right-wing cabinet.
As head of state, Beatrix is charged with overseeing the formation process and there is strict protocol to be followed.
After his meeting, Rutte said a new round of exploratory talks is necessary to get the queen’s negotiator up to speed. He said he thought it extremely unlikely that the next step would be anything other than a recommendation to restart right wing talks.