A new four-party coalition in the Netherlands may look much like its predecessor in terms of composition and leadership – Mark Rutte is still at the helm – but its commitment to public spending and substantial climate-related investment by the state suggests a horse of a somewhat different colour.
The emergence in recent years of populist and fringe parties on the Dutch political scene complicated the process of coalition formation, which has gone on for months. Now, nine months after national elections, Rutte, entering into a fourth term as prime minister, becomes the country's longest-running leader, as part of a governing coalition that includes three of four of the last government's partners: his centre-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), pro-EU liberals, conservative Christian Democrats and, new to the party, the Christian Union. The last government resigned after a scandal over the tax authorities' mislabelling of thousands of parents claiming child benefits as fraudsters. Many were forced to repay huge amounts of money.
As the EU tentatively begins a debate on revising its national debt rules, one of the union's most passionate defenders of fiscal conservatism has pledged to launch spending programmes on housing, education, defence and climate change preparedness that will increase the Netherlands' ratio of debt to gross domestic product above the EU's 60 per cent limit in coming years. With Germany's new "traffic light" coalition also promising expanded state spending, the political dynamics of the EU debt debate may be evolving towards greater flexibility. Ireland, which is part of an informal alliance of EU "frugals" with the Dutch and several northern states, nicknamed the Hanseatic League, may be seeing a shift of policy emphasis on its ally's part.
The resilience of "Teflon Mark", one-time budget hawk, is remarkable. Rutte becomes one of the longest-serving leaders in the union, a role he shares with one of his political enemies, Viktor Orban of Hungary, who has been in office continuously since 2010.