Dutch News

New prime minister Dick Schoof stepped up onto the world stage this week, calling in on Ursula von der Leyen before heading to the Nato summit in Washington. His meeting with fellow debutant Keir Starmer was overshadowed by Oranje's last-minute defeat to England in the semi-finals of Euro 2024 and a penalty decision that made Ronald Koeman see red. A local politician in Rotterdam has his house set on fire while another in Friesland is forced to move out of the area. And Schiphol airport is bracing itself for another summer of chaos and delays caused by a shortage of security staff.

Dick Schoof's honeymoon period turns out to be even shorter than Joost Klein's Eurovision campaign as the new coalition's first debate descends into chaos and infighting. Mark Rutte headed off on his bike to Nato after getting to say his favourite word on television one last time. The impending change of government also caused anxiety at Keti Koti about the future of the proposed slavery museum. The Covid lockdowns turn out to have inspired a new enthusiasm for recreational walking. And at Euro 2024, the under-fire Dutch team step up a gear and now face Turkey in Berlin in the quarter-finals.

Several opposition parties stayed away from this week's ministerial hearings, fearing it would become a political circus. It turned out to be a game of reverse charades in which Marjolein Faber and the other PVV candidates expended a huge amount of words in saying nothing. Mark Rutte headed off to his future workplace of Brussels for one last European leaders' summit before he takes the helm at Nato. A homeless man went viral after handing in a wallet containing €2000. Hugo de Jonge steered through a major rent control law in his last act as housing minister. And the Dutch football team will be hoping to stay away from home a bit longer after receiving a tongue-lashing from the media following their dramatic defeat to Austria.

Exhausted and bedraggled after six months of bruising negotiations, the four parties in the new coalition this week hauled themselves over the start line. While the VVD filled the cabinet with heavyweight international statesmen and NSC appointed senior judges and diplomats, the PVV posted fans of Nazi "Umvolkung" theories. The breakthrough came just in time for Mark Rutte to take over the top job at Nato, having slipped a few sweeteners into Viktor Orbán's coffee. Nearly half of international residents in the Netherlands have experienced or witnessed discrimination, a survey for Dutch News shows. Oranje kick off their campaign with a thunderous strike of Wout Weghorst's boot, but the cricketers are out of the T20 World Cup following a Sri Lankan thrashing. And the flags are out in Scheveningen for the new herring season.

After months of slow progress, the formation of the next government hits warp speed as the new asylum minister resigns before he can be appointed. An early setback for the cabinet's immigration policy as the European Court of Justice says two Iraqi refugees who adopt Dutch values have the right to stay. Six men involved in the murder of the journalist Peter R de Vries are jailed for up to 28 years. The Princess Maxima cancer hospital fields brickbats from the scientific community after sponsoring a paper that links vaccines to Covid deaths. And striker Joshua Zirkzee runs away from Disney World to join Ronald Koeman's footballing circus at Euro 2024.

The European election campaign didn't quite catch fire, but things warmed up in the final days with the PVV and GroenLinks-PvdA running neck-and-neck in the polls. We ask what the outcome means for the new coalition, the pro-European opposition parties and the trivial business of the future of the EU. The coalition talks go from gridlock to quagmire as the parties reportedly row over the distribution of cabinet posts. A Dutch tourist with a marker pen earns himself a heavy fine and the wrath of the Italian nation by scrawling on a historic ruin. Campsites are evacuated as river levels surge following the floods in Germany. Lieke Martens calls time on her illustrious international career and the Dutch men's cricketers start their T20 World Cup campaign with a win.

The six-month quest for a new prime minister ended this week when former spy chief Dick Schoof accepted his own Mission Impossible: keeping the new right-wing cabinet afloat. Good news for his predecessor, Mark Rutte, who can now concentrate on collecting the last stamps he needs to become boss of Nato. We look ahead to next week's European elections, which have been beset by allegations of Russian influence and Danish disenfranchisement. Women have become more independent in the last 50 years, but teenagers are still feeling the after-effects of the pandemic. And a Dutch Lego superfan is told to take his custom-made train sets apart or pay the price.

Polish podcaster Patryk Kulpok joins us this week to chew over the progress of the incoming government and the coalition deal. Which opposition leader did Geert Wilders reprimand for sniping from the sidelines? Why did Pieter Omtzigt end up arguing with Rob Jetten about the price of Ilse de Lange concert tickets? And will we have a new prime minister before our neighbours across the North Sea? In other news, the VVD face being homeless after the European elections after getting into bed with the PVV. Dutch women are celebrating in judo and football, while Ajax's men get a new Italian boss. And universities will be able to turn away foreign students and lecturers under a plan masterminded by distinguished Princeton academic turned education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf.

It was a week when a small European country finally got tough on foreigners who stir up trouble and harass its citizens. But most of the Netherlands was horrified by the expulsion of Joost Klein from the Eurovision Song Contest and rang out church bells in solidarity. Meanwhile in The Hague, a coalition of right-wing parties finally produced a programme for government, promising stringent new rules on asylum, fewer international students and a return to 130 km/h speed limits. Climate experts urge the country to prepare for droughts and flooding, just as the government abandons its green energy commitments. Pro-Palestinian protesters continue to occupy university buildings across the Netherlands. And Ajax appoint a 35-year-old Italian to lead them back to the promised land of the Champions League.

As the coalition talks stall, Geert Wilders delivers on his promise to put the Dutch first by slinking off to Budapest to give a speech in English about African migrants. Security is stepped up for the Remembrance Day ceremony, with numbers limited for the first time, amid fears it could be disrupted by protesters. Mark Rutte books a cheap flight to Turkey to collect one of the last stamps he needs to become secretary-general of Nato. Dutch consumers are cooling on the idea of installing solar panels and heat pumps, while sustainable investment funds turn out to be fuelled by dirty energy. Oranje's all-time top goalscorer Robin van Persie warms up for his first coaching job at Heerenveen. And Joost Klein heads for Sweden with 20 suitcases of Eurovision kit, 10 of them for his shoulder pads.

The coalition talks are in limbo as Geert Wilders turns up the Timmermans Threat level to 11 and the parties try to turn an refugee drama into a crisis. Global warming isn't putting off Dutch holidaymakers, but the cost of travel is making their eyes water. Measles cases are on the rise as the vaccination rate falls. Feyenoord's manager looks set to jump ship while Alex Kroes and the Ajax board look for a creative way out of their death spiral. And we explain why Germany is no longer a happy hunting ground for Dutch train operators and safecrackers.

In the week that Hugo de Jonge revealed that the Binnenhof renovation will cost €2bn and last until 2028, we ask if there is any chance of a government being in place by then. The king thanks his Spanish counterpart for putting up Princess Amalia in Madrid after she was threatened by gangsters, while Prinsjesdag is set for a populist makeover. In a bad week for pensioners, six people in their 70s go on trial for distributing a suicide powder, while canal boat tours fall foul of Amsterdam's anti-tourism drive. Flower growers get creative at the Bloemencorso, and we explain how a Dutch socialist heathen architect rekindled an Olympic tradition.

Crisis club Ajax plumb new depths of hubris as their ramshackle defending on the pitch is eclipsed by a flurry of own goals in the boardroom. Down the road in The Hague, the manure hits the fan in the coalition talks as the negotiators try to put together the puzzle pieces. A group of pensioners go on trial accused of forming a criminal organisation to distribute suicide powders. Cyclists now account for two in five road deaths, but most would still rather be seen dead than in a safety helmet. And campaigners score a major victory in their efforts to clean up 800 tonnes of debris from the bottom of the Waddenzee.

Groningen is up in arms over the senate's decision to pause the great gas switch-off, in a week when several government plans perish in the upper house. Czech claims that Russia has infiltrated the Dutch parliament leave MPs with an intriguing missed Thierry to solve. Ajax's new chief executive scores a devastating own goal as the club's season of misery continues. The government's efforts to remove non-Ukrainans who fled the war turns into a legal minefield, while oil giant Shell appeals against a court order to clean up after its customers.

After agreeing on a form of government that keeps Pieter Omtzigt on board and Geert Wilders muzzled, the four right-wing parties finally get down to business. Two new negotiators are given the task of producing a programme for government within eight weeks, but the only thing the leaders agree on is that the discussions will be "tough". The PVV scuppers a bill on animal welfare, sweeping changes are made to the law on sex offences and Dilan Yesilgöz is told to switch the air-raid sirens back on. Schiphol airport and KLM are rapped over the knuckles by the courts. And sad news in sport as Emmen withdraw from the shirt sponsorship deal that set the hunebeds buzzing.

A breakthrough of sorts in the coalition talks as the four parties agree to form a "programme cabinet", which sounds like a piece of charity shop furniture. Protests against the visit of Israel's president sparks cast a shadow over the long-awaited opening of Amsterdam's Holocaust Museum. The SGP starts a crusade after learning that the government has ordered four new submarines to be built in France. And drug-running winger Quincy Promes's flight from justice appears to have come crashing down to earth on the streets of Dubai.

More than 100 days after the election, there are cautious signs that the four parties who have been bickering since December might be ready to start talking about forming a government. Meanwhile, the outgoing government is battling to keep international employers like ASML and Boskalis in the country. Venlo is hiring Croatians who don't speak Dutch to drive its buses to solve a shortage of personnel. We explain how Amsterdam's tram operator tried to invoice Germany after the Second World War for transporting Jews to the death camps. And in sport, Quincy Promes is involved in a high-speed dash from justice in Dubai, while Femke Bol and Max Verstappen are unstoppable on their respective tracks.

Kim Putters begins his efforts to complete a coalition puzzle that looks increasingly like a charity shop jigsaw with two pieces missing. The mindbending 3D maze that is the Marengo trial ends with life sentences for ruthless gangland boss Ridouan Taghi and two of his henchmen. The PVV gets itself in a tangle over support for Ukraine as the caretaker government agrees a 10-year military support package. In sport, the Leeuwinnen miss out on a ticket to the Olympic Games, while Femke Bol is hoping to cash in her golden ticket in Glasgow this weekend. And Dutch News stirs up some controversy of its own as we investigate the origins of the Groningen eierbal, a hard-boiled egg deep fried in breadcrumbs that looks strangely familiar to Scottish readers.

Kim Putters begins his quest to form a new cabinet by wargaming the 501 permutations put forward by Pieter Omtzigt. The mayor of The Hague asks if the city "missed signals" about the riots that engulfed an Eritrean community event at the weekend. Scientists in Delft make a breakthrough in battery technology that shouldn't be taken with a pinch of salt. In sport, Irene Schouten shocks the world of speed skating by announcing her retirement while Femke Bol continues to set new standards on the athletics track. And we pay our last respects to a guru of the Elfstedentocht and the seldom seen grootkopboloogwants.

The talks to form a right-wing coalition fall apart like a Babboe cargo bike after Pieter Omtzigt makes a smart getaway in lead negotiator Ronald Plasterk's car. After a debate that sets new standards for passive aggression, Geert Wilders asks another Labour-leaning chauffeur to try to get the show back on the road. Mark Rutte could be checking out early on the old coalition after Nato says it wants to appoint a new chief by Easter. Amsterdam city council's debate on its new erotic palace is disturbed (or perhaps enhanced) by some ghostly grunting. The Netherlands officially emerges from recession but still faces a shortage of skilled workers. Quincy Promes looks forward to an extended stay in Russia after being convicted of drug smuggling, a rescue plan for cursed club Vitesse Arnhem falls through and the cricket team fly in to Kathmandu for their first post-World Cup tour.