How satisfied are our neighbours with the coronavirus management of their government? What was the influence of Covid-19 on the election? Is there a strategy on how to “rebuild” the Netherlands in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic? How long will the formation of government take? Discuss this: Siebo Janssen European expert and Kenner of the Netherlands political scientist at Ruhr-Uni Bochum in the field of European and international politics Hilbert de Wal Historian from the Netherlands moderated: Jochen Leyhe, Policy and French teacher at the Clara-Schumann Gymnasium in Bonn. since mid-December, the Netherlands has been in a lockdown, with a population of 17 million, and an evening curfew has been in place since January. Nevertheless, the number of infections is increasing and the Netherlands is now considered to be a high-incidence area. During this period, the Netherlands elected its new Parliament from 15 to 17 March 2021. Premier Mark Rutte’s right-liberal party VVD has, as expected, gained the strongest force with 21,8 per cent of the votes. However, the new star at the political-himmel in the neighbouring country is Sigrid Kaag, whose left-liberal D66 grew the strongest and clearly ranked second with 15 per cent. 37 parties were elected for the 150 seats of the Second Chamber. Due to the extremely low electoral threshold of only 0,7 percent, a total of 17 political parties enter Parliament, the highest number after the Second World War. “The more better”... “This is the culmination of democracy.” Mark Rutte, who needs 76 seats in the House of Representatives to form a government, is quoted. Shortly before Easter, he withdrew a vote of no confidence because coalition talks gave the impression of losing an unpleasant critic, MP Peter Omtzigt. This also complicates the formation of government.