The two parties working to form a new Dutch government, D66 and CDA, have produced a joint policy document that they hope will form the basis of a coalition agreement.

Sybrand Buma, the former CDA party leader chairing the negotiations, said he would talk to all parties in parliament over the next week to gauge support the two parties’ ideas, either as coalition partners or through confidence and supply agreements.

The progressive-liberal D66 and the Christian Democrats have spent the last two weeks brainstorming five key policy areas: housing, migration, the economy, nitrogen reduction and defence.

The parties want to retain the contentious “spreading law” that requires all councils to house a proportionate share of refugees but also introduce stricter asylum rules and a three-year residency permit for some categories of refugees.

They also set out plans to phase out mortgage income tax relief for homeowners – an idea strongly opposed by the right-wing parties VVD and JA21 – and build 21 large-scale housing projects across the country.

The document also states the “expat ruling will be restored” – possibly referring to a planned cut in the tax break in 2027 – and the nationality act will be modernised so that “Dutch nationals living abroad will not lose their nationality more quickly than those in Germany, France, Belgium and Britain”.

“Ambitious agenda”

The two leaders, Rob Jetten of D66 and Henri Bontenbal of CDA, stressed that they had left plenty of scope for other parties to include their own ideas, particularly on how to finance their “positive and ambitious agenda”.

Jetten said the 17-page document was “not a detailed coalition agreement but an outstretched hand”, while Bontenbal called it an “open invitation to hold talks with other parties”.

Both leaders talked up the constructive and harmonious nature of their discussions in the last two weeks and pointedly contrasted it with the fractious relations between the partners in the last right-wing coalition.

“A lot of people in this country have seen politicians in recent years do nothing but put off solutions when we so badly need to see progress and results,” Jetten said.

Bontenbal said he and Jetten shared “a wish to do politics differently: constructively, respectfully and with a focus on substance”.

“We are building bridges to haul ourselves out of the trenches and help the Netherlands move forward,” he said.

Open mind

Buma said some topics had deliberately been left out of the interim report, such as justice, education and government reforms, to give other parties the chance to put their own stamp on a future coalition agreement.

“I hope that other parties will look at this agenda with an open mind,” Buma said.  “It should be read as an invitation that hopefully other political parties, but also organisations in society, social partners and other branches of government can find opportunities to co-operate.”

He said he would consult other parties over the next week before submitting his final report to parliament on December 9.

Majority cabinet

At least two more parties will be needed to have a majority in the lower house of parliament and the right-wing VVD and GroenLinks-PvdA alliance are the most likely candidates. But the VVD has so far refused to work together with the left-wing parties.

VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz reiterated her support for a centre-right government in her social media reaction to the interim report. “We are ready to talk,” she said, “and to take the next steps towards a centre-right alliance and thereby do justice to the wishes of voters.”

Jesse Klaver, leader of the left-wing grouping GroenLinks-PvdA, said he welcomed the D66 and CDA efforts to build bridges between the parites. Their plan, he said, “is not social or green enough but we see enough reason for detailed negotiations to form a majority cabinet.”