DutchNews Podcast

The coalition talks grind on as the three parties decamp to Prince Bernhard's former military lodge. Volodymyr Zelenskyy unveils plans in The Hague to rebuild Ukraine with the proceeds of frozen Russian assets. Commercial pilots in the skies over Curaçao play Russian roulette with the US Air Force as the Venezuelan crisis escalates. Robin van Persie is feeling the pressure as Feyenoord lose two cr...

Sybrand Buma bows out as coalition negotiator, leaving behind an iconic photograph and a Herculean task to form a new government. His successor, Maastricht university professor Rianne Letschert, pays tribute to the Schoof cabinet when she almost steers off the road as she takes the call offering her the job. Ajax stop the rot with a dramatic late comeback in Azerbaijan. Dick Advocaat is declared s...

The coalition talks hit an impasse as D66 and CDA's hopes of forming a government go up in smoke faster than an Ajax home match. Financial investigators uncover more evidence of Russian influence at the Netherlands' largest shipbuilder. AvroTros confirms it will boycott next year's Eurovision Song Contest in protest at Israel's participation. Utrecht waits for DNA test results after a suspected "p...

Like exhausted generals at the Somme, the VVD gear up for one last push to get their asylum bill through parliament before the new cabinet takes office. Drones from Russia - or possibly MediaMarkt - cause consternation in the skies and ground aircraft in Eindhoven. PSV are on cloud nine after thumping Liverpool in the Champions League, while Ajax look to another Cruyff to rescue them from the dold...

Dick Advocaat sparks scenes of jubilation on Curaçao and the world's shortest open top bus tour after the Caribbean nation reaches the World Cup for the first time. Back in The Hague, Rob Jetten and Henri Bontenbal get bogged down on nitrogen policy, while Dilan Yeşilgöz serves coffee with humble pie to Hans Wijers. Groningen reels from its biggest earthquake in six years while economic affairs mi...

Rob Jetten and Henri Bontenbal give Dilan Yesilgöz a taste of her own medicine by shutting the VVD out of the first round of coalition talks. Employers are struggling to entice workers to go back to the office, while the VVD quietly ditches plans to protect migrant workers from exploitation. Limburg protests against the removal of exhibits at a a US war cemetery honouring black liberators. The pre...

National train chief Wouter Koolmees defies expectations by getting the first stage of coalition talks under way with only a slight delay. But will Dilan Yesilgöz' pledge to deplatform GL-PvdA shunt the whole exercise into a siding? The housing crisis intensifies as private landlords sell off student flats and a project to convert empty buildings fails to make an impact. The cabinet controversiall...

We pick over the bones of the election that had just about everything … apart from a result. Jetten just about edges out Wilders, Yesilgöz snatches defeat from the jaws of catastrophe, Bontenbal and Eerdmans console themselves with huge gains and Van Hijum starts browsing brochures for Sint Eustatius. Eight so-called sovereign citizens are charged with forming a senior citizens' terror cell. Amste...

D66 look set to become the largest party in the new Dutch parliament in a shock result that sees Geert Wilders' far-right PVV lose a dozen seats. The VVD do better than expected and finish ahead of GroenLinks-PvdA – whose leader Frans Timmermans announced his resignation after we recorded the podcast – and the CDA. With Rob Jetten likely to get first dibs on forming a coalition and at least two vi...

Clip from October 10 Dutch News podcast on the rise of D66 in the election campaign

A low-key election campaign staggers into its final days with a flurry of minor squabbles about refugee centres, religious schools and whether the animal rights party is too pro-human. House prices could be peaking as private landlords sell off their rental properties. A crisis looms in the German car industry after China hits back at the Dutch government's takeover of Nexperia. Eurostar sends dou...

In the absence of Geert Wilders, the election debates kick off with an evening of shadow boxing between four parties who could all end up in government together. The Dutch government removes the CEO of a Chinese-based chip manufacturer, but was Washington pulling the strings? Rotterdam's Cape Verde community celebrates as the tiny African country makes it to the World Cup for the first time. And t...

The election campaign heats up with rumours of a meltdown in the VVD, Henri Bontenbal being roasted on the dance floor and Volt blowing a fuse over the radio debates. Dutch universities speak out against budget cuts after slipping further down the international league table. Police announce a breakthrough in the investigation into the murder of a 19-year-old Hungarian sex worker. Forest rangers cr...

The election campaign gets off to an ominous start as Amsterdam puts up billboards with an American accent and Geert Wilders goes rage-canvassing on Twitter. The government bows to pressure to allow a handful of wounded children from Gaza to be flown to the Netherlands for treatment, while coming under pressure to stop sending fighter jet parts to Israel. You'll need a big pile of capital if you w...

The eruption of far-right violence in The Hague destroys the fragile hopes of a civil, constructive election campaign. Housing minister Mona Keijzer keeps Marjolein Faber's legacy alive by ploughing on with her asylum policies in the face of a withering assessment by the Council of State. More than 40% of voters say Gaza will influence their choice on October 29 and half want tougher sanctions aga...

Prinsjesdag is usually a day to delight fashion fans and financial nerds, but this year's edition fell short on both fronts as the parties got stuck into the election campaign. Train strikes are called off after unions agree a pay deal, but Schiphol is facing more disruption. Newly discovered CCTV footage could cast a different light on the violence that surrounded the Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv footba...

Usually Treasury Tuesday is the high point of September, but this year it was overshadowed by Super Saturday, when Dutch politicians stood up on a conference stage and said who they didn't want to form a coalition with. Foreign affairs minister David van Weel asks the Russian ambassador how 19 drones veered into Polish airspace, just as the VVD abruptly changes course on sanctions against Israel....

The podcast returns with a look back to a summer in which the government managed the unprecedented feat of collapsing for a second time. The political parties' manifestos are dominated by the issues of housing, immigration and how to sweep up the NSC vote. The brutal murder of a 17-year-old girl in Amsterdam becomes fodder for the far right when an asylum seeker is accused of the crime. Vitesse Ar...

In a hilarious and intricate farce set in The Hague, Geert Wilders plays a man who wakes up every morning unable to remember if he still supports his own asylum bill. Another victim of Wilders' amnesia, singer Douwe Bob, has to flee the country when Dilan Yesilgöz forms a strike partnership with a pro-Israeli football hooligan. PFAS "forever chemicals" are set to join nitrogen compounds and CO2 on...

Mark Rutte's plan to treat Donald Trump like Orange royalty paid dividends at the Nato summit in The Hague. Specifically 5% dividends, as the 32 nations agreed to raise their defence spending with a definition of "vital infrastructure" as elastic as Rutte's spine. Geert Wilders' PVV party threatens to sabotage its own asylum bill in protest at the other parties undermining Marjolein Faber's "brill...

The election campaign gathers pace as Dilan Yesilgöz goes on the attack against GroenLinks-PvdA while also slamming the door on another coalition with Geert Wlders' PVV. NSC narrowly avoids descending into chaos as one of the contenders in the race to lead the party into electoral oblivion drops out. Meanwhile, Dick Schoof secures a mandate to raise defence spending ahead of next week's Nato summi...

After a week of strategic bickering between the coalition parties, Dick Schoof brokers a deal to split the asylum ministry three ways, making it less fragmented than it was under Marjolein Faber. Amsterdam unveils a plan to get international workers to speak Dutch and get involved in community work, in the hope that the locals will follow suit. Eurostar celebrates its new expanded service in a des...

In the most unsurprising plot twist since James Cameron's Titanic, the Dutch cabinet collapsed this week when Geert Wilders walked out in protest at his own asylum policy. With an election almost five months away, we ask if Dick Schoof's lame-duck cabinet can make more waves on defence, housing and immigration. Meanwhile, Mark Rutte has to figure out a seating plan at the Nato summit dinner that s...

Eleven months after Dick Schoof's cabinet took office and 10½ months later than expected, the Dutch cabinet has collapsed after Geert Wilders pulled out of the four-way right-wing coalition. We look at how he managed to stir up a full-scale row over immigration with three parties that agreed with him and how the other parties were left wrong footed. And we ask how voters will respond to Wilders' g...

The capital's 750th birthday celebrations get off to a chaotic start, while Ajax lose the title and their Italian coach in the space of a week. Foreign affairs minister Caspar Veldkamp has more success in Europe, forcing the EU to investigate Israel's aid blockade in Gaza. Auditors skewer the government's spending plans, while the IMF sticks the knife into the koopkrachtplaatjes. And was a motley...