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New Party Shakes Dutch Political Landscape

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

AMSTERDAM (Worthy News) – Dutch politician Pieter Omtzigt, who helped uncover one of the biggest political and social scandals in the Netherlands since World War Two, has launched a new party ahead of November’s elections.

Omtzigt, a longtime member of the Dutch center-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party, announced he had created a new party during a major crisis in his nation.

The new party, New Social Contract, was due to shake the Dutch political landscape, with polls giving it a whopping 46 seats of the 150 seats- House of Representatives of parliament.

Ironically, the 49-year-old Omtzigt said he wasn’t looking forward to winning so many seats. “The ambition is not to become the largest party under the spell of the polls, but rather to implement the plans and find support for them,” he said on his website.

“I look forward to working with a great group of people to really implement the proposals we have made in parliament in recent years. In the field of good governance and livelihood security, for example,” added Omtzigt — who initially left the CDA in 2021 to become an independent.

He admitted that the party does not have a list of candidates yet, but Omtzigt said they are “talking to people.”

“Next week, there will be a call on our website for people who want to join us to come forward,” he pledged. “We have until October 9 to develop an electoral list.”

LIBERAL SETBACK

His announcement was a setback for the conservative-liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) party of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Even before the broke, Rutte pledged not to return to politics after more than a decade leading the seafaring nation through often troubled times.

Omtzigt uncovered years-long ethnic profiling by tax authorities of thousands of parents receiving child benefits.

As a result, close to 1,700 children were forcefully removed from their parents while 70,000 children were suffering, with many parents divorcing or, in some cases committing suicide due to scandal-related stress.

Though Rutte and his cabinet resigned in response to the Dutch childcare benefits scandal, the VVD once again won the 2021 general election.

Rutte began his fourth term in 2022 after another record-length formation period.

Last month he announced his government’s resignation after his coalition disagreed on handling increasing migration, another headache dossier now left for his successor.