Geert Wilders’ attempts to form a new coalition and cabinet are off to a rocky start, as his chief scout called it quits on Monday.
The PVV’s (Party for Freedom) Gom van Strien, Wilder’s chosen scout, is accused of fraud by his former employer.
While he denies the allegations, Strien, Wilders, and the chairman of the House of Representatives decided that he should resign as the PVV scout, reports RTL Nieuws.
What is a scout? After elections in the Netherlands, the party that wins the most number of seats elects a ‘scout’, who goes into negotiations and talks with the other parties to try and form a cabinet and coalition.
Coalition and cabinet consequences
Or rather, the lack of consequences.
Despite the less-than-ideal start to forming a government post-elections, the news of Van Strien’s departure won’t affect the talks between PVV and the other parties too heavily — it will just delay them.
In his place, Wilders has nominated Ronald Plasterk, former Minister of Education and Minister of Interior for the Labour Party (PvdA), to become the new scout for a PVV government.
So, what happened?
Utrecht Holdings is a company linked to Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht, setting up companies to bring university research into the market. Profits flow back to the university and medical centre — sounds nice, right?
Well, the company made several complaints about “scams and bribery in connection with share transactions between two former Utrecht Holdings employees between 2006 and 2018”.
Apparently, Van Strien, who was company director until 2009, and his successor manipulated shares by transferring them to an external company, in which their wives and friends owned significant shares.
Estimates by another RTL Nieuws report say he could have earned up to €2 million between those years.
How do you think the government talks will go? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!
