Alexander Pechtold is stepping down as leader of coalition partner D66. The move, say the main Dutch papers, is not good for the current coalition government.

The Volkskrant in its editorial pinpoints two crucial moments in Pechtold’s career: in 2005 when his ‘brawn’ brought an ailing party ‘back from the brink’ and in 2012 /2013 when Pechtold propped up the government during the economic crisis when electoral gain for the move was not on the cards.

His reward, the Volkskrant writes, came last year, when the party did as well in the general election as under his predecessors Hans van Mierlo and Jan Terlouw.

The other side of the coin however, was that D66 turned into a ‘well-oiled power machine from which a public debate about party direction and ideals has all but vanished’, VK writes.

‘The new parties on the right have hijacked the push for innovative administration,’  and much will depend on the new leader. ‘Rutte will be worried. He is losing a staunch architect of the government accord. A new leader will have to prove him or herself and that may mean a more pronounced course,’ the paper writes.

‘Unpredictable’

The NRC also talks of ‘a risk to the cabinet’ in its analysis. D66 has not been doing  well in the polls and this will almost certainly make the party ‘unpredictable’, the paper writes.

Things may become even more complicated if the cabinet loses its slim majority come next year’s provincial government elections, which in turn determine the make-up of the senate. Chances are this will happen, the paper writes, and in that case, Rutte III will have to find more support.

While D66 would welcome Labour, which would endorse climate plans, the SGP could also be an option to help the coalition get legislation through the upper house. But the SGP will demand an end to the experiment to regulate cannabis cultivation and ‘it is far from certain D66 would want to go along with that’, the paper states.

And if Pechtold’s successor pushes for more ambitious climate plans, a clash with the VVD and the CDA could follow, NRC concludes.

Wolf

According to the Financieele Dagblad Pechtold was able to realise ‘80% of his party’s goals’ during his 12 years as leader although the political debate was dominated by the concessions that made up the remaining 20%, such as the tax on dividends and democratic renewal.

To Pechtold, creating a broad base of consensus and taking responsibility mattered more than pursuing a strict party line, FD writes. At the same time he managed to turn the party into the biggest progressive party in the Netherlands.

What he didn’t manage to project is that D66 ‘made the difference in an otherwise right wing cabinet’. ‘His role as sheepdog keeping the coalition sheep together was clearly not one he relished as much as that of the ‘hungry opposition wolf’, the paper says.

Hammer blow

The Telegraaf calls Pechtold’s decision a ‘hammer blow’ to his party. Several MPs, including Jan Paternotte and Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, were quick to say that they would like to take over as leader. This was an indication of things to come and, the Telegraaf writes, the wranglings and manoeuverings will make D66 look like ‘a pack of monkeys without a gorilla’.

Trouw predicts that the new parliamentary party leader will have his or her work cut out: an unexperienced new leader will have to field the negotiations about the consequences of the government’s change of heart about corporate tax in the coming weeks.

And: ‘being in a government with Rutte hurts’, Trouw writes, ‘as the CDA and Labour know to their cost’.  The new face of D66 will have to carve out a clearer image of the party without losing sight of the agreements in the government accord and that is where the tension will be concentrated,’ Trouw states.