DutchNews Podcast

2G or not 2G? That is the question vexing Dutch politicians as coronavirus cases keep soaring and the calls for tighter restrictions grow louder. The coalition talks are still on track despite a careless party leader leaving confidential documents on a train. Sparks fly in parliament as far-right party FVD is accused of threatening behaviour. And that could be the only flashpoint we see this winte...

With Code Black looming in hospitals, the Dutch government brings in a 'lockdown lite' in the hope of bringing infections down by Sinterklaas. But at least there'll be less black on the faces of the saint's entourage, as research show 'sooty Piets' have become the dominant strain. December 5 is also the date when Mark Rutte hopes to have his fourth cabinet installed, a mere nine months after the g...

With coronavirus cases on the rise again, experts call for firm, decisive action to bring infections down. Politicians, however, prefer to tinker with work from home rules, rely on a patchy QR code system and put the hard decisions off for another week. Elsewhere this week the Netherlands clocked up a record number of billionaires, while Amsterdam announced plans to restrict the city's housing mar...

New climate change forecasts this week were the stuff of Dutch nightmares: if the Netherlands doesn't step up its efforts to cut emissions, it risks becoming a Mediterranean country. Even more urgently, the rising tide of coronavirus infections has raised the prospect of restrictions being imposed again. And there's still the question of when we'll have a new government as the coalition breaks its...

Sinterklaas ophef comes round earlier every year, but there's a twist this time around: it's not about Zwarte Piet. A critical review of the government's coronavirus strategy comes out just as cases soar again and ministers promise to repeat the same mistakes as last year. Infections are certainly moving much faster than efforts to compensate for the victims of the child benefit scandal, with MPs,...

This week the coalition talks moved into an exciting new phase as the four parties from the last government finally agreed to make up the numbers. Also making up numbers was junior justice minister Ankie Broekers-Knol, who was rounded on by all sides after she suggested 100,000 Afghans could be on their way to the Netherlands. Other numbers causing concern are the coronavirus infections, which are...

Six months after the election, the coalition merry-go-round comes full circle as the four parties from the last coalition agree to form the next one. A vegan restaurant in Utrecht becomes a cause célèbre for protesters against the coronavirus check pass. Mark Rutte gets some unwanted attention from the criminal underworld and a former councillor best known for his part in a penile pastry scandal....

The pandemic put paid to the usual Budget Day pageantry again, but the economic revival gave parties plenty of scope to embellish the balance sheet with extra cash for teachers, healthcare staff and new houses. The abolition of the 1.5 metre rule failed to bring a rapprochement with the hospitality sector over the compulsory corona check app. Leonardo di Caprio became the latest celebrity to sign...

D66 leader Sigrid Kaag will be spending more time with Johan Remkes after she resigned over the chaotic operation to evacuate Kabul. Remkes's task of forming a new coalition became more complicated as the ChristenUnie and Labour played significant parts in Kaag's downfall. The cabinet abolished the 1.5 metre society and set up the Corona Check Club, despite loud protestations from the hospitality...

There are three levels of crisis in the Netherlands: moderate, severe and 'call Johan Remkes'. The self-styled Plumber of Groningen has given himself a month to unclog the blockage in the coalition negotiations, which has grown fatter this week following Sigrid Kaag's gossamer-veiled attack on Mark Rutte. Despite warnings from viral experts that coronavirus infections are set to rise as we move in...

Scientists were stunned this week when a stingray at Harderwijk's Dolfinarium gave birth seven years after its last sexual encounter, but it will take an even bigger miracle to form a new Dutch government by Christmas. With the coalition talks deadlocked, Mark Rutte and Sigrid Kaag have bowed to the inevitable and called in 'Mister Stikstof' Johan Remkes to fix the crisis. Elsewhere there is conce...

It's the last podcast before the summer holiday, but there's little respite in prospect for thousands of people in Limburg hit by unprecedented flooding in the Maas valley. The chances of anyone going abroad are diminishing fast as the surge in coronavirus cases turn the Netherlands red on the EU's travel map. The country is shocked by the murder of investigative journalist Peter R de Vries in bro...

Alarming news dominates this week's podcast as journalist Peter R de Vries is shot in the street and coronavirus infections spread like wildfire through the country's nightspots. Was De Vries targeted for his investigations into the Netherlands' drug gangs? And what measures will the government bring back to save everyone from long Cov- sorry, from having to cancel their holidays? MPs say goodbye...

After Oranje checked out early from Euro 2020, the state broadcaster brought further shame on the nation by posting the wrong lyrics to the German national anthem. Fans looking to drown their sorrows had to move fast to beat the ban on cut-price alcohol promotions from July 1. Elsewhere it was a week of success in Dutch sport, with Max Verstappen and Mathieu van der Poel scoring victories on four...

Coronavirus infections are receding, Janssen vaccines are being snapped up like hot cakes and football fans are looking forward to watching Oranje on the big screen again. But will the Delta variant spoil everyone's party this summer? As the coalition talks get stuck in the mud, Mark Rutte gets stuck into Victor Orbán over Hungary's law banning the 'promotion' of homosexuality. And we explain how...

Face masks are on the way out and tourists are on the way back as the end of the pandemic looms into view. But after 50 years of milking British stag parties, Amsterdam is looking to lure a different class of post-corona visitor. In other bad taste news, streets around the country are turning orange as the Dutch make a bright start to Euro 2020. Pieter Omtzigt splits with the CDA after his memo sa...

The government is looking to speed up the end of lockdown as coronavirus infection rates hurtle downwards, but at the Binnnehof everything's grinding to a halt. Wopke and Mark can't manage to split up Jesse and Lilianne, Sigrid doesn't want to share with Gert-Jan and Pieter has served up a giant can of worms. Elsewhere, four men go on trial accused of murdering all 298 people on board flight MH17...

Mark Rutte and Hugo de Jonge joined the 10 million people to be vaccinated this week, just as museums, restaurants and the Droomvlucht ride at the Efteling reopened for business. The Janss— pardon, Johnson & Johnson vaccine was taken out of circulation over concerns about blood clots, while controversy raged about the face mask deal that netted CDA protégé Sywert van Lienden €9 million. Wopke Hoek...

A mass coronavirus experiment, outrage over drugs tourists and pariah status for Belarus: this year's Eurovision Song Contest really had it all. Museums, bars and restaurants are set to open sooner now that coronavirus is on the wane, even in Rotterdam. In a landmark judgment, global super-polluter Shell is told it has an obligation under human rights law to stop climate change. While the coalitio...

At long last coronavirus infections have started to fall, but not soon enough to make this year's Eurovision Song Contest an even more tasteless experience than usual. Also falling rapidly is Forum voor Democratie's seat count as three MPs defect in the wake of the latest row and the Brabant coalition collapses. A village north of Amsterdam has its quiet afternoon rudely interrupted by a scene str...

The podcast team look forward to the mouthwatering prospect of bitterballen for breakfast as step two of lifting the coronavirus restrictions looms into view. One thing falling even faster than the infection numbers is Forum voor Democratie's seat count as the party splits faster than a uranium atom on steroids. Riots break out in Doetinchem as Go Ahead Eagles pip De Graafschaap in the battle to g...

For the second year in a row the May 4 and May 5 ceremonies took place without an audience. Actor André van Duin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel marked the event with moving speeches about rebuilding after the war, while conspiracy theorists marked it with a tasteless poster about coronavirus rules. The Netherlands' largest online retailer bol.com was reeled in by an online phishing scam that...

Sighs of relief alternated with sharp intakes of breath this week as the coronavirus rules were relaxed just as the number of patients in hospital reached a four-month high. Minutes of cabinet meetings confirmed that ministers tried to stonewall MPs' efforts to expose the child benefits scandal. Another critical report shed a light on the culture of bullying and abuse in the world of gymnastics. A...

Three months after introducing a curfew to drive coronavirus infections down, Mark Rutte said it was 'responsible' to lift restrictions now that cases are 25% higher and hospitals have started cancelling heart surgery. There's another setback in the efforts to form the next government as it emerges ministers pre-cooked the evidence they gave to parliament about the tax office scandal. There's shoc...

As infections rose again this week, the government agreed to organise a series of mass events for people who are sick of lockdown, so they can get sick with coronavirus instead. We also explain why a D66 MP gave up his seat after just 15 days while Geert Wilders was uncharacteristically silent on the subject. Newly published tape recordings shed light on the case against the four men accused of sh...