The new Dutch government poses with Dutch King Willem-Alexander on the steps of royal palace Huis ten Bosch in The Hague, Netherlands, on July 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Netherlands has a different Prime Minister for the first time in 14 years as Dutch King Willem-Alexander swore in the country’s new government Tuesday, more than seven months after elections dominated by a far-right, anti-Islam party.

Dick Schoof, former head of the Dutch intelligence agency and counterterrorism office, signed the official royal decree at Huis Ten Bosch Palace, saying he “declared and promised” to uphold his duties as the country’s prime minister. The 67-year-old was formally installed alongside 15 other ministers who make up the country’s right-leaning coalition.

The anti-immigration party of firebrand Geert Wilders won the largest share of seats in elections last year but it took 223 days to form a government.

The four parties in the coalition are Wilders’ Party for Freedom, outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, the populist Farmer Citizen Movement and the centrist New Social Contract party.

The formal agreement creating the new coalition, titled “Hope, courage and pride,” introduces strict measures on asylum-seekers, scraps family reunification for refugees and seeks to reduce the number of international students studying in the country.

Opposition from other coalition partners prevented the controversial Wilders from taking the prime minister’s job. During the monthslong negotiations, he backpedaled on several of his most extreme views, including withdrawing draft legislation that would have banned mosques, Islamic schools and the Quran.

ALSO READ: Far-right turn: On Geert Wilders’ win in the Netherlands

For the first time since World War II, the Netherlands is now led by a prime minister who is not aligned with a political party. Before serving as chief of the country’s top intelligence agency, Mr. Schoof was previously the counterterror chief and the head of the country’s Immigration and Naturalization Service.

During the lengthy talks, his name had not been circulated as a possible prime minister and national newspaper the Telegraaf reported that Mr. Schoof was the fifth choice for the top spot. Mr. Wilders’ first pick, Ronald Plasterk, was forced to withdraw from consideration after allegations of his involvement in a medical patent fraud came to light.

The other government ministers were sworn in Tuesday according to seniority of their departments. One minister, Femke Wiersma who will head the agriculture portfolio, made her declaration in Frisian — the country’s second official language alongside Dutch.

Although the November elections were widely seen as a win for the far right, political youth organisations are already pushing back on the ambitions of the new government. Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, youth groups from six parties, including two of the coalition partners, called for a softening on asylum plans.

“Although the influx must be limited, it is of great importance that we receive people here fairly and with dignity,” Eva Brandemann, chairperson of the youth wing of the New Social Contract, told Dutch public broadcaster NOS.

Her counterpart in Mr. Rutte’s party, which brought down the government last summer over concerns about the number of family reunifications for refugees, told NOS that problems stemmed from administration, not migration. “The impression after all those conversations is that there is not so much an asylum crisis but a reception crisis,” Mauk Bresser, the chair of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy youth organisation said.

The new government will now spend the summer firming their coalition agreement into a governing plan.

A man is arrested by members of the DSI special police forces after several people were taken hostages in a cafe in Ede, Netherlands, on March 30, 2024. Everyone being held hostage in a town in central Netherlands is now free and a suspect is in custody, Dutch police said on March 30, 2024, after an ordeal that lasted several hours.
| Photo Credit: AFP

A hostage drama in the Netherlands that lasted several hours on Saturday ended without bloodshed as all hostages were freed and police took the suspect into custody.

Authorities have said there was no reason to suspect a “terrorist motive” for the ordeal, which took place at a night spot popular with young people in the town of Ede.

“The last hostage has just been released. One person has been arrested. We cannot share more information at this time,” announced police on X, formerly Twitter.

Several local media reported that a “confused” man had burst into the cafe in the early hours of Saturday morning and made threats, holding four people hostage.

The incident sparked a major deployment including riot police and explosives experts.

Police cleared the centre of the town and evacuated the residents of some 150 buildings near the cafe.

An initial group of three people were released, with pictures from public broadcaster NOS showing them exiting the building with their hands in the air.

The fourth hostage was freed shortly afterwards, with the suspected hostage-taker then arrested.

NOS images showed a man kneeling on the ground with his hands behind his back, as officers restrained him with handcuffs.

“A terrible situation for all these people. My concern and thoughts go out to them and their loved ones. I hope that the situation is now resolved quickly and safely,” said Ede mayor Rene Verhulst.

Last year, a 27-year-old man armed with two guns held several people hostage at an Apple store in Amsterdam, sparking a tense five-hour ordeal.

That stand-off ended when the suspect was hit by a police car as he chased his last hostage who made a desperate break for freedom and ran out of the store.

He later died in hospital from his injuries.

The Netherlands has seen a series of terror attacks and plots but not on the scale of other European countries, such as France or Britain.

In 2019, the country was stunned by a shooting spree on a tram in the city of Utrecht that claimed four lives.

In the most serious incident involving a terror attack, outspoken Dutch anti-Islam film director Theo van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death in 2004 in Amsterdam by a man with ties to a Dutch Islamist terror network.