A wafer-thin plan

Coalition partners miss a trick with "leaked" circular economy plot

Leaked document, working title: A circular economy that connects

THE MESSENGER was a 79 year-old former top civil servant-turned-labour party politician, who in the 1990s served for six years as chairman of the Senate. Which looks like a decent set of qualifications - technocrat, statesman, left-leaning - to assess what’s gone wrong in serial Dutch coalition governments. 

Herman Diederik Tjeenk Willink was deployed by prime minister Mark Rutte in the role of informateur, with a brief to rebuild trust between the cabinet and parliament after a string of scandals. His interim report set out principles to inform the ongoing multi-party talks on the formation of a new coalition government.

Willink’s advice? In a nutshell: Keep it short. 

He urged a “wafer-thin” coalition agreement - een flinterdun coalitieakkord. By sticking to the bare bones - an outline of four or five major issues, reported public broadcaster NOS - parties could sidestep the kind of hard-won compromises baked-in to previou…