Dutch News

The eruption of far-right violence in The Hague destroys the fragile hopes of a civil, constructive election campaign. Housing minister Mona Keijzer keeps Marjolein Faber's legacy alive by ploughing on with her asylum policies in the face of a withering assessment by the Council of State. More than 40% of voters say Gaza will influence their choice on October 29 and half want tougher sanctions against Israel. The Dutch Rugby Union decides to allow trans players in women's teams. And Rotterdam's Blijdorp zoo hatches a plan to rescue a batch of stowaways from Iceland. Link to Italian member of the resistance: https://www.vprogids.nl/podcasts/lees/artikelen/2024/Luciana--Italiaanse-overgrootmoeder-blijkt-verzetsheldin-te-zijn.html

Prinsjesdag is usually a day to delight fashion fans and financial nerds, but this year's edition fell short on both fronts as the parties got stuck into the election campaign. Train strikes are called off after unions agree a pay deal, but Schiphol is facing more disruption. Newly discovered CCTV footage could cast a different light on the violence that surrounded the Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv football match last November. And we reveal the secret recipe that could untie your tongue if you're struggling to speak Dutch.

Usually Treasury Tuesday is the high point of September, but this year it was overshadowed by Super Saturday, when Dutch politicians stood up on a conference stage and said who they didn't want to form a coalition with. Foreign affairs minister David van Weel asks the Russian ambassador how 19 drones veered into Polish airspace, just as the VVD abruptly changes course on sanctions against Israel. A group of radicalised boomers are accused of plotting to blow up the Nato summit and the mayor of Leeuwarden. And Vitesse Arnhem enjoy the kind of comeback NSC can only dream of as their hastily assembled squad gets ready for a very late kick-off.

The podcast returns with a look back to a summer in which the government managed the unprecedented feat of collapsing for a second time. The political parties' manifestos are dominated by the issues of housing, immigration and how to sweep up the NSC vote. The brutal murder of a 17-year-old girl in Amsterdam becomes fodder for the far right when an asylum seeker is accused of the crime. Vitesse Arnhem are given another reprieve in the long-running saga of their imminent decline. A painting looted by the Nazis turns up on an estate agent's website in Argentina. And we explain why if you're listening to this podcast on your lunch break, you're probably not in Belgium.

In a hilarious and intricate farce set in The Hague, Geert Wilders plays a man who wakes up every morning unable to remember if he still supports his own asylum bill. Another victim of Wilders' amnesia, singer Douwe Bob, has to flee the country when Dilan Yesilgöz forms a strike partnership with a pro-Israeli football hooligan. PFAS "forever chemicals" are set to join nitrogen compounds and CO2 on the list of pollutants that the Netherlands firmly resolves to do nothing about. And in sport, the men's cricket and women's football teams have busy weeks ahead, while the Wimbledon dream is already over for the Dutch hopefuls.

Mark Rutte's plan to treat Donald Trump like Orange royalty paid dividends at the Nato summit in The Hague. Specifically 5% dividends, as the 32 nations agreed to raise their defence spending with a definition of "vital infrastructure" as elastic as Rutte's spine. Geert Wilders' PVV party threatens to sabotage its own asylum bill in protest at the other parties undermining Marjolein Faber's "brilliant" plans. Housing minister Mona Keijzer believes darker hallways and even steeper staircases are the answer to the housebuilding crisis. And a creeping horror is back to terrorise the nation's oak trees.

The election campaign gathers pace as Dilan Yesilgöz goes on the attack against GroenLinks-PvdA while also slamming the door on another coalition with Geert Wlders' PVV. NSC narrowly avoids descending into chaos as one of the contenders in the race to lead the party into electoral oblivion drops out. Meanwhile, Dick Schoof secures a mandate to raise defence spending ahead of next week's Nato summit with the support of Frans Timmermans. Amsterdam city council is criticised for letting disinformation thrive following the hit-and-run attacks on Israeli football fans in November. Fewer Dutch adults are smoking and drinking, but hiking cigarettes prices is not persuading hardcore smokers to stop. Scheveningen gears up for a vintage raw herring season, and there's news of yet another last-minute bailout package for the crisis club Vitesse Arnhem.

After a week of strategic bickering between the coalition parties, Dick Schoof brokers a deal to split the asylum ministry three ways, making it less fragmented than it was under Marjolein Faber. Amsterdam unveils a plan to get international workers to speak Dutch and get involved in community work, in the hope that the locals will follow suit. Eurostar celebrates its new expanded service in a deserted Amsterdam Central Station after NS workers go on strike again. And in football, Tijjani Reijnders and Quincy Promes are involved in big moves for very different reasons.

In the most unsurprising plot twist since James Cameron's Titanic, the Dutch cabinet collapsed this week when Geert Wilders walked out in protest at his own asylum policy. With an election almost five months away, we ask if Dick Schoof's lame-duck cabinet can make more waves on defence, housing and immigration. Meanwhile, Mark Rutte has to figure out a seating plan at the Nato summit dinner that stops a food fight breaking out between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A regional train strike in Utrecht has the same impact on the network as Marjolein Faber on the asylum system. The White Lions of Telstar have a financial mountain to climb as they prepare for top-flight football for the first time since 1978. And the Rijksmuseum proudly shows off a 200-year-old tattooed contraceptive.

Eleven months after Dick Schoof's cabinet took office and 10½ months later than expected, the Dutch cabinet has collapsed after Geert Wilders pulled out of the four-way right-wing coalition. We look at how he managed to stir up a full-scale row over immigration with three parties that agreed with him and how the other parties were left wrong footed. And we ask how voters will respond to Wilders' gamble in the upcoming elections – whenever they may be.

The capital's 750th birthday celebrations get off to a chaotic start, while Ajax lose the title and their Italian coach in the space of a week. Foreign affairs minister Caspar Veldkamp has more success in Europe, forcing the EU to investigate Israel's aid blockade in Gaza. Auditors skewer the government's spending plans, while the IMF sticks the knife into the koopkrachtplaatjes. And was a motley crew of Dutch bikers and Romanian mobsters behind the Drents Museum heist?

Pressure mounts on the Dutch cabinet to denounce Israel's destruction of Gaza, with the mayor of Amsterdam, universities and even PVV voters growing increasingly critical. Scientists warn that Donald Trump's cuts to academic research are hampering their ability to work with American colleagues. The Netherlands could face water shortages as climate change and economic pressures take their toll. No green room drama for the Dutch at Eurovision this year as Claude safely makes it through to the final. And Ajax's NSC-like disintegration sets up a grandstand finish to the Eredivisie season.

Foreign minister Casper Veldkamp finally draws a red line over Israel's intervention in Gaza, but will it be the fault line that ruptures the coalition? The conflict is also the focus of protests at ceremonies to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. But at least one of the coalition parties has something to celebrate, as MEPs vote to downgrade the protected status of the wolf. And the close-knit fishing community of Urk launches a scheme to find former residents who were lost at sea.

As the economy cools, the cabinet burns through its green energy fund to bail out fossil fuel users and torch its climate change targets. The debate on who should be included in the May 4 commemorations flares up again as an alternative ceremony to include the victims of Gaza is condemned by some politicians. Geert Wilders claims victory as his asylum minister's policies apparently drive down refugee numbers in the whole of Europe before they've even been implemented. Indoor football is rocked by accusations of match fixing, Ajax blunder their way to the Eredivisie title and there's a suspicious death in Emmen zoo to get your teeth into.

The passing of Pope Francis managed to put the king's birthday birthday celebrations and Pieter Omtzigt's dramatic departure from politics in the shade this week. The coalition leaders emerged from a marathon negotiation session with a spring budget deal designed to please everyone except the taxpayers. Intelligence services accuse Iran of planning a botched assassination, Russia of sabotaging European elections and China of industrial espionage. And Belgian goalkeeper is the toast of Deventer as the Eagles swoop to a famous cup final victory.

An Easter egg scramble begins in The Hague as ministers try to grab a morsel of the €8 billion available in his spring budget statement. The Binnenhof's history as a medieval palace turns out to be even longer and richer than we suspected. Academics at Dutch universities face extra screening to prevent them stealing scientific knowledge, while students are warned about a rise in rent scams. Dutch badminton players fear for the future of the sport after its funding is slashed. And a coot's nest that became a treasure trove of Amsterdam trash is being moved to a museum in The Hague.

Once again Marjolein Faber confounds critics and partners alike with her bottomless talent for turning a storm in a teacup into a political maelstrom. Dick Schoof insists his cabinet is united behind his decision to clean up the mess caused by Faber's refusal to honour five volunteers for working with refugees. Elsewhere, a majority of MPs back a ban on street fireworks while prisons minister Ingrid Coenradie steers through her controversial early release scheme. The UK extends its electronic travel permit scheme to EU citizens. And we explain why the long-awaited legal cannabis growing scheme is at risk of being stubbed out before it can be rolled out.

This week it was the turn of the immigration service and the justice inspectorate to take Marjolein Faber to task over her unravelling immigration plans. Amsterdam is shocked as five people are stabbed in an apparently random attack near Dam Square. Travellers to the United States are warned about Donald Trump's backward shift on LBGT rights. PSV have to quarantine their new Spanish striker after the player is diagnosed with tuberculosis. And wolves, badgers and house cats are all blamed for wrecking the Netherlands' natural order.

Dick Schoof heads to Brussels for a defence spending summit with orders to pull the emergency brake on the Eurobonds train. Back in The Hague, the PVV holds its own prisons minister hostage over her plans to solve the overcrowding problem in jails. And the education minister wants to attract foreign talent to universities that are cutting down on international students and English-language classes. Intelligence agencies are pushing the boundaries by gathering information in secret for law enforcement agencies, watchdogs warn. The construction sector warns that housebuilding plans are being hamstrung by the nitrogen crisis. The skating season ends with a Dutch gold rush in Norway and Max Verstappen makes a splash as he starts his bid for a fifth Formula One world title in Melbourne.

The latest crisis to engulf Dick Schoof's cabinet sees three coalition parties vote against the prime minister on Europe's rearmament plan to support Ukraine. GroenLinks-PvdA speed up plans for a merger, almost as if they expect an early election. JA21 MP Joost Eerdmans, a PVV councillor and Groningen's former mayor all get into difficulty in their cars. The government wants to tighten up regulations on vaping while Amsterdam steps up restrictions on Airbnb. And while Dutch athletes sweep the board at the European Indoor Championships, one speed skater shoots himself in the foot ahead of the season finale.