Published Nov 12, 2026 6:23 am : Updated Nov 12, 2026 10:47 am
Netherland's Prime Minister Rob Jetten speaks with the media as he arrives for the EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten conceded Thursday that his struggling three-party minority ruling coalition has to undergo a “serious fresh start,” after a deal to support a proposed tax plan for next year angered one of the coalition partners.
Jetten’s government was in crisis less than nine months into its four-year term as it scrambled to garner support for a package of tax plans that underpin its 2027 budget plans.
Lawmakers from Jetten’s centrist D66 party and the center-right Christian Democrats reached the deal Wednesday with two center-left opposition parties — PRO and Volt — to get the tax package through the Dutch parliament.
But fellow coalition member, the right-wing People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, or VVD, slammed it as a bad deal for the Netherlands and a breach of the coalition agreement the three parties hammered out in weeks of negotiations before taking office.
Jetten skipped a European Union leaders’ summit in Ireland to attend a debate in parliament about the tax measures.
He told lawmakers during the hours-long debate that he agreed his coalition “must make a very serious fresh start, in order to function much better together.”
VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, who is also the Dutch defense minister, said Wednesday her party was ambushed “by the fact that our coalition partners struck a deal with an opposition party.”
She called it “a poor proposal” that “runs counter to the coalition agreement.”
Ruben Brekelmans, the leader of the VVD’s bloc in the lower house, said during Thursday’s debate that a “very fundamental discussion has to take place within the coalition regarding the way forward.”
“I am not pushing for any specific outcome, nor am I ruling out any options in advance,” he said, adding that it could lead to interim coalition-building talks or even D66 and the Christian Democrats continuing in a minority coalition with PRO.
A review by the finance ministry, led by VVD minister Eelco Heinen, warned that the amendment could create a funding shortfall of more than 400 million euros ($442 million), and the government advised lawmakers against supporting it.
Christian Democrat leader Henri Bontenbal told national broadcaster NOS before the debate started that he wanted the coalition to survive and serve its full four-year term. “Preferably eight years,” he added.
If a reset does not patch up the differences between the ruling parties and Jetten’s government falls, it would likely pave the way for fresh elections next year, the fifth general election in less than a decade in the politically splintered Netherlands.
Jetten’s government was a risky political experiment from day one, holding only 66 of the lower house of parliament’s 150 seats. Jetten was sworn in in February as the Netherlands’ youngest and first openly gay prime minister.
He narrowly won an election in late October last year, securing the same number of seats as anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom, but with slightly more votes.
Jetten said when he took office that he wanted to usher in a new era of consensus politics in parliament after years of bickering between parties. But that has largely failed to materialize, with his coalition unable even to avoid internal divisions over its plans and opposition parties making tough demands in return for supporting legislation.
The crisis echoes a similar impasse in neighboring Belgium, where Prime Minister Bart De Wever tendered his resignation to the king following a protracted crisis over the country’s budget. King Philippe last Friday rejected the resignation and asked De Wever’s coalition to resume negotiations.
By MIKE CORDER
Associated Press
This post was last modified on 11/12/2026 10:47 am