As the coalition talks hobble towards the start line, a new parliament of fresh faces is sworn in. But only after the old gang gets together for one last job: solving the mystery of some missing votes in Tilburg. The Brabant city is also the scene of some surreal footballing scenes as the orange Lionesses edge out the white ones in the Nations League. The Dutch government is taken to court over its supply of fighter jet parts to Israel, while the Red Cross is called in again to fix the...

The process of forming a new government gets off to an inauspicious start when Geert Wilders's candidate to canvas the 15 parties turns out to have some undisclosed dodgy dealings. Geert can't find a partner, Pieter is bickering about the prenups, Dilan just wants to be friends and Caroline is urging them to give it another try. Away from the negotiations, asylum seekers get the right to work more than half the year and solve the housing crisis, while shopping bills continue to defy...

After the earthquake of Geert Wilders's election win, we pick our way through the rubble. Can the PVV form a coalition and where will Wilders find his team of ministers from? Or will it be a centrist cabinet with Frans Timmermans's PvdA-GL alliance? How many glasses of Prosecco will Vera Bergkamp need after meeting all 16 party leaders on Friday? And who will be the first to crack and phone Johan Remkes? Plus news of the Dutch football team's win against Gibraltar, higher traffic fines and a...

The podcast team reacts to what looks set to be the most dramatic election in the Netherlands for a generation. The NOS exit poll gives Geert Wilders's far-right PVV party 23% of the vote and a clear lead over its rivals. The VVD drops to third place behind the left-wing block of PvdA-GroenLinks and Pieter Omtzigt wins 20 seats three months after founding his party. We review the final week of the campaign, the game changing opinion polls, and ask the crucial question: what the hell happens now?

The three front runners are deadlocked as the election campaign enters its final days, all hoping a surge in support, a tactical shift or a last-minute gaffe will tip the balance their way. Mark Rutte takes time out from his busy schedule handing out flyers in Almere to measure up the curtains at Nato HQ. Away from the campaign, Schiphol's plans to cut flights are brought down under pressure from the US and the EU. Eurostar gains a potential rival and Parisians are offered the enticing...

The gloves come off in the election campaign as Pieter Omtzigt is taken to task for his lack of detail, while kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven takes a sideswipe at Dilan Yesilgöz. Meanwhile, Frans Timmermans drops a key manifesto pledge before dashing off to eye up German chancellor Olaf Scholz's pretzel collection. Mark Rutte has an eye on his next job as he heads to the Middle East to talk to Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The government wants to extend its ban on mobile phones in...

Storm Ciaran arrived this week and proved so fierce that even the organisers of the headwind cycling championships were forced to to back-pedal. In the election campaign there was a sense of calm before the storm as Frans Timmermans and Pieter Omtzigt engaged in a bit of light sparring while Dilan Yesilgöz gave an interview that was dominated by her dog and her wardrobe. The Dutch cricket team notched up their second win of the World Cup, while Ajax moved off the bottom of the Eredivisie....

As the Netherlands cricket team prepares to face Afghanistan in a win-or-bust showdown at the ICC Cricket World Cup in India, DutchNews speaks to all-rounder Logan van Beek about the team's progress so far. A dramatic tournament has included a historic win against South Africa, a record defeat by Australia and some eye-catching individual performances with bat and ball. Plus Van Beek reflects on his cricketing heritage and his Super Over heroics against the West Indies.

The election campaign moves into top gear with the first TV debate, Pieter Omtzigt's manifesto launch and the first candidate to resign in disgrace for abusive tweeting. Mark Rutte meets Israeli and Palestinian leaders to discuss the conflict in Gaza, while safety concerns prompt the cancellation of a speech on genocide and a march commemorating Kristallnacht. The safety board criticises the government's pandemic control plan for being too narrowly focused on healthcare and calls for better...

The conflict in the Gaza strip dominates this week’s news in the Netherlands. Prime minister Mark Rutte repeated the Dutch government’s support for Israel and stressed it must stay within the boundaries of international laws and proportionality, but a similar statement by Frans Timmermans caused the first friction between the two party alliance he’s leading into the November general election. We take a first look at the results of a survey in which DutchNews readers were asked who they would...

The runners and riders are declared for the election and it's looking like a three-horse race with six weeks to run. There's a row about flags as councils deliberate over how to commemorate the victims of the violence in Israel and Gaza. Max Verstappen completes his procession towards the F1 title in infernal conditions in Qatar while Sifan Hassan prevails on the streets of Chicago. Extinction Rebellion suspends its blockade of the A12 motorway after MPs order the government to review fossil...

The loudest skeleton in the Dutch royal closet fell out this week with the discovery of Prince Bernhard's Nazi party membership card. As one resistance hero fell from grace, another had his honour restored as Tula was formally rehabilitated 228 years after being put to death for demanding freedom from slavery in Curacao. And Ajax will hope that their talismanic former coach Louis van Gaal can steady the ship after appointing him as an advisor to the board. Wopke Hoekstra becomes an unlikely...

Rotterdam was in shock this week after three people were shot dead in an apparent revenge attack by a medical student who had been taken to court for mistreating animals. In the election campaign, Pieter Omtzigt unveiled his list of candidates for his Nieuw Sociaal Contract party, while Esther Ouwehand stepped aside as PvdD leader for the good of the party. There are fireworks at Ajax but no celebrations as the Klassieker is postponed, fans go on the rampage and director of football Sven...

Prinsjesdag, the ceremonial presentation of the annual accounts, went down with a whimper rather than a bang, as well as plenty of bells and whistles for the royal household. Sigrid Kaag delivered a caretaker budget of minor tweaks ahead of a debate that failed to ignite the election campaign but covered plenty of ground, from the moon landings to the N35 regional road. Questions are asked after a Dutch tourist has an extended stay in Spain courtesy of the intelligence services. Feyenoord and...

The animal rights party PvdD completed its metamorphosis into a fully fledged Dutch political party this week with a bloody, bare-knuckled power struggle. Esther Ouwehand emerged as top dog in her battle with the party's management board, but will it knock the PvdD off their electoral perch? We discuss that, as well as the squabbles over D66's candidate list and the quickfire dismissal of Pieter Omtzigt's spokesman. In other news, public transport fares are going up, spending power is going...

This week the main political parties set out their stalls as the campaign for the first Rutte-free election in 20 years gathers momentum. Asylum minister Eric van der Burg loses yet another court case, this time on third-country nationals fleeing Ukraine. Denzel Dumfries dispatches Greece in Eindhoven while Max Verstappen sets yet another record in Monza. We look at why souped-up speed merchants on two wheels are threatening Amsterdam's status as a cycling haven. And could herring give way to...

As is tradition in September, the cabinet’s plans for the coming year will strategically leak in the weeks before the budget is officially presented by king Willem-Alexander on Prinsjesdag. This week, it was revealed that the caretaker cabinet is planning to allocate 2 billion euros to combat the cost of living crisis, following the news that more than a million people would plummet into poverty if no action is taken. Meanwhile, prime minister Mark Rutte, finance minister Sigrid Kaag and...

The podcast returns to chew over the latest developments in the election campaign. Pieter Omtzigt steps into the fray, Dilan Yesilgöz steps into Mark Rutte's shoes, Wopke Hoekstra shuffles off to Brussels and Caroline van der Plas says she won't be standing anywhere in high heels. Nobody seems alarmed that the economy is in recession, while the dancing is over for Janssen's vaccine developers in Leiden. Sifan Hassan and Femke Bol recover from their stumbles to win medals in Budapest as Max...

A special edition of the DutchNews podcast focuses the collapse of the cabinet, the end of the Rutte era and the upcoming election. Will immigration dominate the campaign, will Vincent Karremans get back on his high horse and will Pieter Omtzigt team up with the farmers? And what about the game of Tweede Kamer musical chairs, as several parties hold leadership contests before the election in November?

As we recorded this week's podcast, it was unclear if Mark Rutte was going to a step further than Vladimir Putin and stage a mutiny against his own government. The king apologised for the Dutch slave trading past and said the law could never be used to justify crimes against humanity. Dutch museums begin the process of repatriating hundreds of thousands of cultural artefacts taken during the colonial era. The head of national railways is widely mocked for his failure to understand the point...

Justice minister Dilan Yesilgöz lends the far right a veil of respectability by backing a PVV proposal to ban police from wearing headscarves. Farmers Defence Force are roundly condemned for circulating MPs' phone numbers ahead of a debate on the stalled talks on agriculture reform. RIchard de Mos is at the centre of more chaos in The Hague as the coalition is unable to agree on how to rehabilitate him after his acquittal on corruption charges. The inquiry into the government's pandemic...

In an explosive week for education, schools minister Dennis Wiersma's short fuse detonated for the last time and universities erupted in protest against Robbert Dijkgraaf's "Dutch first" plan for bachelor degrees. The farmers' lobby pulled out of talks on funding a transition to sustainable agriculture, leaving the government's nitrogen strategy in the mire. More details emerge of how the government wasted millions of euros buying substandard face masks from coathanger magnates and car...

The king announces he'll be taking regular train services after the decision to retire the royal carriage. He'll be able to travel to with NS, QBuzz or Arriva, but not Eurostar, who are furious about being shunted into a siding by the Dutch government. Also stuck in a rut are D66, who have been frozen out of provincial coalition talks by the BBB. Farmers are told whether they qualify for Christianne van der Wal's "wildly attractive" bonus scheme for peak polluters. Talks on a New Deal for...

It's a bad week for European connections as the eurozone slips into recession and Eurostar trains to Amsterdam face being suspended for seven months. Prime minister Mark Rutte faces a barrage of criticism over the thorny issues of migration and the Groningen gas field earthquakes. The ICJ in The Hague is deluged with terrible Russian excuses in a case brought by Ukraine. Bad water management is causing drought and threatening the future of native bees and the butterflies. And talking of...

The new Senate is sworn in after the coalition parties emerge as the winners of the three-dimensional game of horse trading for the final seats. But not before the outgoing chamber rubber-stamps the outcome of 16 years of talks to reform the pension system. Councillors in The Hague swiftly remove signs proclaiming glory to Ukraine just as councillors in Zeeland put signs up banning hedonism in the dunes. Police, prosecutors, protesters and Amnesty International are all unhappy with the...