#Plasterk #Timmermans #complaint #assignment #Domestic
The Hague – Informer Ronald Plasterk does not agree with Frans Timmermans’ complaints. The PvdA/GL leader believes that Plasterk is going beyond his limits by talking to the forming parties about subjects other than the rule of law, but according to the informant, Timmermans is wrong.
The PvdA/GL leader, together with PvdD leader Esther Ouwehand, asked for a letter from informateur Plasterk on Tuesday. According to Timmermans, he does not adhere to his assignment, because financial experts sat down at the formation table on Tuesday. Klaas Knot (president of De Nederlandsche Bank), Pieter Hasekamp (director of the Central Planning Bureau) and Bas van den Dungen (the highest official at Finance) came by for an explanation about the state of the treasury.
‘Not the agreement’
“The negotiating parties are already talking about policy without knowing whether there are hard guarantees about the rule of law,” Timmermans grumbles. “That was not the agreement. And so there needs to be clarification.” According to Timmermans, the assignment that Plasterk received upon his appointment as informateur (which PvdA/GL voted against) states that other topics may only be discussed if the parties agree on safeguarding the constitution.
Plasterk does not agree with his PvdA party colleague. “No agreements have been violated,” the informant said on Tuesday evening. He will also send that message formally to the House of Representatives by letter, he says. “I adhere to the assignment given to me by the House as an informant.” Plasterk does not want to say whether this means that PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB already agree with each other on the rule of law part: “I will not comment further on the procedure, as I constantly do not do.”
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