Former Dutch intelligence chief Dick Schoof was sworn in as Prime Minister of the Netherlands on Tuesday, July 2, heading a right-wing coalition government tasked with implementing the country’s immigration policy. the strictest ever seen ” in the country.
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More than seven months after the resounding electoral victory of the far-right leader Geert Wilders, surprising the country and the whole of Europe, Dick Schoof succeeds Mark Rutte, in power since 2010. The latter has been appointed Secretary General of NATO. Dick Schoof presented his ministers to the King of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander in the gilded palace of The Hague. Each took a step to swear allegiance to the sovereign and the constitution.
Geert Wilders had to give up his ambition to become prime minister after some parties threatened to split over his notoriously anti-Islam and Eurosceptic views. Instead, the four coalition parties agreed that their leaders would not be part of the government and a compromise was reached in the person of Dick Schoof, 67, who is not a party.
A former Labour Party member
The marathon runner will need all his stamina and experience in the corridors of power in The Hague to keep a fragile coalition together. He ” will have a lot of work keeping ideological and personal conflicts under control ” observes Sarah de Lange, professor of political pluralism at the University of Amsterdam, to AFP. According to an Ipsos poll published Tuesday, public confidence in the government has risen to 42%, after a low of 29% in September 2022.
Read alsoNetherlands: Geert Wilders announces he will not be Prime Minister
Dick Schoof claimed to be ” determined ” to implement the plans of this coalition, which aims to establish ” the strictest asylum admission policy ever ” and a package of measures ” to control migration “The 26-page coalition agreement, titled “Hope, Courage and Pride,” also calls for consideration of moving the Dutch embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Schoof said he wanted to be “ a prime minister for all Dutch citizens “. ” I am non-partisan. I do not see myself being held on a leash by Mr Wilders. “, did he declare.
Dick Schoof has played a key role in various crisis situations, including the investigation after the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 over Ukraine. He was then head of the Netherlands’ counter-terrorism agency. A former member of the Labour Party, Dick Schoof has the support of left-wing opposition leader Frans Timmermans, who nevertheless described him as ” clearly Wilders’ candidate “.