Draft legislation allowing transgender people to change their sex in their passport more easily is likely to fail now Pieter Omtzigt is mobilising a majority of MPs to scrap the plan, the AD said on Thursday. 

The legislation had already been ruled controversial by the new influx of MPs, meaning it can only be discussed when there is a new government. And Omtzigt’s NSC argues that now there is no longer a majority in favour of the legislation, it should be withdrawn altogether.

The draft bill, drawn up in 2022 by the liberal democratic party D66 and supported by most of the left-wing opposition, will give transgender people the right to change their sex to V (vrouw or woman) or M (man) but not X without the say-so of a doctor.

Far-right and right-wing parties oppose the change and that means there is now a majority against the plan in the lower house of parliament. The VVD has not yet made its position clear. 

NSC MP Nicolien van Vroonhoven has now asked the cabinet to withdraw the legislation or face a motion to that effect.

“We are absolutely not against changing sex,” she told the AD. “But it should not be too easy either. There are real risks to women’s safety. In England, for example, men have been given access to women’s prisons and that is not something we should want.”