Coalition crisis talks resume Monday without a breakthrough

D66, VVD and CDA ended a weekend of crisis talks on the future of the Jetten cabinet without a breakthrough. The Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst, the government information service, said the talks were intensive and good, but the parties are not there yet. They continue on Monday at the Catshuis in The Hague.

The crisis began when the D66 and CDA parliamentary parties struck a deal with PRO and Volt to change the tax plan. The amended plan raises wealth tax by €1bn and uses the money to lower income tax, shifting the burden from working people to the wealthy.

The cabinet advised the Tweede Kamer not to agree, among other reasons because the financial backing was not watertight. The Kamer voted for the amendment anyway, against the wishes of the VVD, which said it was taken by surprise.

On Friday, deputy prime minister Dilan Yesilgöz, the VVD leader, said: "The cabinet as it is now, a minority cabinet, is a failed experiment." She said a fundamental reset is needed to continue.

Prime minister Rob Jetten (D66) said the same day: "The fact that we are not walking out of here in a bitter row shows that these three parties want to do what is necessary." CDA deputy prime minister Bart van den Brink also wants to keep talking, but criticised the VVD's stance: "Being angry doesn't mean you are right."

On Saturday and Sunday the party leaders met at the De Zwaluwenberg estate in Hilversum and kept radio silence. Jetten and D66 parliamentary leader Jan Paternotte, Yesilgöz and VVD parliamentary leader Ruben Brekelmans, and Van den Brink and CDA parliamentary leader Henri Bontenbal took part. What the VVD means by a fundamental reset has not been spelled out.