Dick Schoof, former intelligence chief, will be the new Dutch premier

Dick Schoof, former head of the Internal Intelligence Service, has been nominated as Prime Minister of the Netherlands by the four centre-right parties that will form the majority coalition: Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom (PvP), the liberal-conservatives of the Vvd, the New Social Contract (Nsc) and the Citizens' Farmers Movement Bbb.

The four parties had been discussing this since last week, when the first candidate under consideration, former Labour minister Ronald Plasterk, had called off. Schoof has also been Labour in the past, but is no longer affiliated to any party and his is considered a technician's profile, nominated precisely because he has expertise in priority areas in the future government's programme: security and immigration. Sixty-seven years old, the most senior official in the Ministry of Justice, Schoof has in the past headed the counter-terrorism unit and the Immigration Department.

According to the programme presented after the agreement reached on 15 May between the four parties, the next government promises to be one of the most right-wing oriented in the Netherlands in decades, with a specific focus on reducing immigration.
Schoof 'has a very good track record, is non-partisan and therefore above the parties,' said Wilders, the majority shareholder in the new government, controversial for his populist and extremist positions, especially on Islam and immigration, in a post on X.

The future prime minister for his part came up with statements attempting to dispel these fears: 'I say this explicitly: I am here for all Dutch people,' Schoof told a press conference, emphasising that he wanted to 'unite the Netherlands'. "I did not take this decision lightly and I am here with full conviction," he emphasised, adding that he was not afraid of being subjugated to the power of government coalition leader Wilders. "I know him a little," he confined himself to saying. The coalition programme 'is excellent for all Dutch people', he concluded, reiterating that he was not the premier of Wilders' Pv but of all four governing parties.

Schoof will take over from Mark Rutte, the longest-serving prime minister in Dutch history. Before formally taking office, however, he will have to wait for the government to be formed: a process that could take weeks more. The four parties are aiming to form what they have called an 'extra-parliamentary' cabinet, half of which is made up of political appointees and half of experts in various fields. The declared aim is to complete the puzzle before the summer break.