DutchNews Podcast

News that Rob Jetten is expecting a baby with his partner delights almost everybody, except the family values party SGP. The discovery of a woman's body in a suitcase in Amsterdam sparks fear, anger and a mass of unanswered questions. Prices of gas, train fares and health insurance are going up as winter approaches. And one of the great medieval philosophers tackles the elephant in the dining room...

Pandemonium breaks out in the Dutch middle classes as hackers cancel the country's Albert Heijn bonus cards. Rob Jetten criticises Donald Trump's diesel deal and sanctions against the ICC. Thrillseeking Dutch auditors say the country's roads and railways need a €9.5 billion upgrade to prepare for war. The Senate votes to stop fining the immigration service for taking too long to process asylum cla...

Rob Jetten fetches the rusting polder model from the Catshuis loft and sits down with the trade unions to revive the budget talks. The IND is in a bind after European judges order it to take 140,000 Ukrainian asylum applications out of cold storage. The government wants to recruit a 130,000-strong Home Guard in case Russia or any of Dilan Yesilgöz's other enemies invade. The student debt mountain...

Eelco Heinen celebrates too soon after striking a budget deal with opposition parties that lasts for exactly as long as it takes them to read the small print. Amsterdam is shocked by the shooting of a prison warden on a bustling restaurant terrace. In less shocking news, Dutch data centres are accused of hiding their impact on the environment and energy supplies. Tom Berendsen tries to mend fences...

In a week of fire and fury, Donald Trump turns up the heat on the ICC, David van Weel is grilled on misleading crime figures and the CDA's former golden boy gets his fingers burned at 35,000ft. PFAS chemicals are leaking into the water supply from farmers' fields and firefighters' hoses. The high point of Groningen and Drenthe's winning bid to host the World Cycling Championships is a massive heap...

Prinsjesdag was a day of sound and fury, with saboteurs disrupting the railways, protesters spray-painting the Royal route, and a King's speech signifying nothing but political paralysis. Rob Jetten's calls to the opposition to overcome their differences and back his budget fall on deaf ears as the rival flanks tell him to pick a side. A silent vigil is held in Rotterdam for a man who died while b...

Budget Day promises to be full of drama this year as rising inflation and living costs put further pressure on the coalition parties. Freight traffic on inland waterways dropped to its lowest level during the summer drought, raising the stakes on climate change. Education experts sound the alarm over plunging standards of literacy among Dutch teenagers. American commentators breathe a sigh of reli...

Rob Jetten’s hopes of doing a budget deal with the opposition are dashed when the three coalition parties can't agree who to bring on board. Villagers in Gelderland are caught in the crossfire of a deadly gang war when 30 armed men open fire at dawn. The RIVM warns that Dutch mosquitos are spreading West Nile virus after nine people fall ill. As the university year begins, students are still being...

After seven years of gridlock, stalled negotiations, upturned flags and tractor protests, the government believes it has a solution to the nitrogen emissions problem. The coalition parties try frantically to garner opposition support for their autumn budget before the summer break. The deadly heatwave in June may have cost around 500 lives and scientists warn it will only get worse. Ronald Koeman...

Children's rights were neglected and their well-being suffered during the coronavirus lockdowns, the inquiry into the pandemic is told this week. The Netherlands' first ever code red warning for weather is issued as day and night temperatures soar. Rob Jetten delivers a long awaited apology for treatment of Moluccan war veterans who fled post-colonial Indonesia. International students are at high...

The Japanese emperor visits the national war memorial to commemorate the victims of his country's occupation of Indonesia. Over at the World Cup, Oranje do their bit for diplomatic relations by conceding a late equaliser to Japan in their opening game. Police believe a blast that destroyed a gym in Amsterdam was caused by cashpoint robbers making their own bombs. Explosives are also found at the s...

New European rules on asylum come into force, but the Dutch immigration service warns it will take a year to clear the backlog. An extradition treaty aimed at busting drug gangs is signed, while the net tightens around the latest "Mr Big". International students numbers fall for the first time in 20 years, but Dutch students are disappearing even faster. The Mauritshuis is allowed to keep a batch...

In the wake of the recent asylum riots, we unpick the Dutch far-right landscape with the help of Leiden university professor Sarah de Lange. Voters' confidence in Rob Jetten's cabinet has plunged in the first 100 days as it struggles to make progress on key policy areas such as asylum, welfare and housing. Palestinian students with visas for the Netherlands will get more help leaving Gaza. The NS...

Social affairs minister Hans Vijlbrief cans the cabinet’s plans to extend the retirement age in the hope of avoiding a summer of strikes. Accusations fly in parliament in a bad-tempered debate on asylum, as the reception centre in Ter Apel continues to strain at the seams. The sale of DigiD is blocked at the last minute to the dismay of Donald Trump's man in The Hague. Schiermonnikoog wants to use...

As the atmosphere outside asylum centres grows heated and the debate becomes increasingly poisonous, Rob Jetten sends in a crack team of civil servants to lend moral support. A changing of the guard at Schiphol leads to long queues at the airport, while unions warn of more disruption over the summer. The crew of the MV Hondius look forward to six weeks in a dockside cabin in Rotterdam. Art detecti...

An outbreak of a rat-borne virus on a cruise ship triggers mass anxiety as phrases like "self-isolation" and "test and trace" re-enter the lexicon. Local mayors are growing increasingly frustrated with The Hague's reluctance to condemn violent protests outside refugee centres. Environmental campaigners are distraught as the man who led a string of successful court cases against major polluters tak...

The army is feeling the heat after several wildfires break out during training excercises in tinderbox conditions. The king gets his skates on and straddles some Frisian dikes for his birthday bash this year. Protests against refugee centers turn ugly when a former council office is trashed by roving hooligans. The government signs a data security deal with the owners of Lidl as it tries to become...

Vaudevillian scenes in the Senate as the PVV block their own asylum bill before blaming D66 for not wanting to soil their hands with it. The cabinet still isn't willing to cut fuel prices but hopes cheap train tickets and extra poverty relief funding will ease the pain. Utrecht is forced to take emergency measures after its electricity grid hits its limit. Artworks looted by the Nazis from Jewish...

Those who can, plan; those who can't, plan scenarios. At any rate, that seems to be how the Dutch government is preparing for the impending crisis triggered by the war in Iran and blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. It wasn't enough to stop the king and queen's visit to the other orange king in the White House going ahead: the royal couple avoided any embarrassing mishaps, unless you count the faux...

The Netherlands promises to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open, but only once the hellfire has died down. Continuing the theme of negotiating with scoundrels, curators in Assen and Bucharest breathe a sigh of relief following the safe return of the golden helmet that was stolen from the Drents Museum last year. In a victory for vested interests, the Senate is set to vote down the cabinet's plans...

As political parties around the country come together to form council administrations, the far-right Forum voor Democratie rage against the mainstream by falling apart. The government decides the best way to conserve energy during the escalating fuel crisis is to stand still and do nothing. Motorists are inundated by fake fines in the wake of the Odido hack. Dozens of Eredivisie footballers turn o...

All parties claim victory after this week's local elections, but the real winners were the local parties, who took more than one-third of the total vote. The losers were Rob Jetten and Carola Schouten, who recklessly promised to abseil down the Euromast tower if turnout went up. We bring you a run-down of the results and the main talking points, including a huge comeback win for Richard de Mos in...

With a week to go until the local elections, we provide a Dutch News crash course in how to vote and find your way through the jungle of local parties. Rob Jetten's cabinet rules out emergency measures to cut fuel prices, while pressure grows to keep the Groningen gas fields open. Chip manufacturer ASML unveils plans to expand its campus in Eindhoven. The Council of State tells the government to t...

As local elections approach, we talk to polling expert and political scientist Tom Louwerse about the kaleidoscopic range of candidate and parties on offer and how voters can make sense of it all. Rob Jetten's first week as prime minister proves to be a bumpy ride, and not just because he's travelling by road to Brussels. The cabinet comes under fire from all sides as it tries to support Donald Tr...

Rob Jetten starts work as prime minister by shaking hands with Olympic heroes and doing backroom deals with PVV refuseniks. Mona Keijzer creates an unstable situation in farmers' party BBB after being passed over for the leadership. Internet provider Odido is in double trouble after hackers leak its customers' data. And art historians get a surprise when they view a collection of "very nice" etchi...