Almost three months have passed since the general election and the Netherlands is still without a new government. Various combinations of political parties have tried and failed to reach agreement on a majority coalition.
On Friday afternoon, after this week's video was completed, the coalition discussions between the VVD, Christian Democrats and the Freedom Party fell apart when anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders announced that his Freedom Party no longer believed that the Christian Democrats could negotiate in good faith. Mr Wilders cited the turmoil between the parties, which is explained in this week's video, is the reason he was pulling out of the discussions.
Turmoil in the Hague
Discussions began around three weeks ago between the biggest party, the liberal VVD, the Christian Democrats (CDA) and Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV). The negotiations were aimed at forming a minority cabinet composed of the VVD and the CDA, with support in parliament from the PVV.
Talks between the three parties initially seemed to be proceeding smoothly, but, over time, more and more Christian Democrats began voicing concern about working with the PVV, particularly given that party's stance on freedom of religion for Muslims, immigration and aid to developing countries.
This week, one of the CDA negotiators, caretaker Health Minister Ab Klink, announced that he no longer wanted to participate in the formation process. This led the CDA to hold a crisis meeting, which seemed to have calmed the political storm in the short term while leaving open the possibility that this latest government formation attempt might also ultimately fail.
Terror threat at Schiphol?
This week, two suspected terrorists were arrested and removed from a plane at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The two come from Yemen, and were travelling from the US with unusual items in their luggage. They were detained after a request from US authorities, but now the Americans say they don't believe the men were planning a terrorist attack.
Water worries
The Dutch have always had a complex relationship with water. Much of the land people live on in the Netherlands would actually be underwater were it not for an enormous and complex system of dams, dykes and pumps. But the struggle against encroaching water continued this week in a number of towns and villiages that were flooded as a result of heavy rains.
Dino Soerel
He's been called the King of the Dutch Underworld, and he's been on the run from the law for a year. This week, Dino Soerel was arrested in Amsterdam. He has already been convicted of drugs smuggling, but the authorites say he's been involved in many more criminal activities including blackmail, and conspiracy to commit murder.
Don't move
In most major cities around the world, there are statues on display which depict significant historical figures. But in the city of Arnhem this week, a festival was held for statues made not of stone, but of flesh and blood.
Frozen for future use
With more women choosing to have children later in life, gynaecologists have been presented with a challenge, because as a woman ages, the quality of her ovum cells decreases. To address this issue, some Dutch gynaecologists are suggesting that women have their healthy eggs extracted and frozen while they are still young. Then, later in life, they can use these eggs if they choose to have children.
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Much enjoyed the new format - well done
Much enjoyed the new format - nice to see use of location shots for the presenter. Well done!
hm, the new format doesn't really work for me. it's not so nice to see a commentator sitting around awkwardly on stones and such, but his narration skills are still superb. the new dutch narrator is way too slow and his tone just does not work. the interplay between the two narrators is generally confusing, seeing as how they have completely different (and uncomplimentary) styles. but it's nice to experiment, i guess.
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