The politician tipped to be the next Dutch Prime Minister has written a public apology letter to the leader of the NSC, Pieter Omtzigt, about an incident that occurred at an earlier stage of the coalition formation process. The politician, Ronald Plasterk, published a letter in a column of De Telegraaf apologising for the incident on May 17.
The NSC leader is said to be displeased with the idea of Plasterk as the new Dutch Prime Minister, following an incident which took place while he was an informant during the formation process of the next Dutch government. In the newspaper column "R. Plasterk, Amsterdam" writes that he should not have told the House of Representatives that Omtzigt had borrowed his official car during an earlier stage of the negotiations.
Plasterk previously worked as a writer for De Telegraaf until he took the job as a negotiator. It is believed that Plasterk’s letter is an attempt to clear the air between the two in order to pave the way for his premiership.
The dispute between the pair started when negotiating parties only received information about financial setbacks at a late stage, leading to resentment building up between Omtzigt and the informateur. Omtzigt accused Plasterk of being behind the delay, with Plasterk responding by accusing Omtzigt of having a lack of respect for the "informateur institute".
"I have been asked a lot how I look back on the fact that I said in the debate about the first information round that the informant's official car had been used. I would like to say that I should not have done that. I therefore personally apologized afterwards to Pieter Omtzigt," Plasterk told NOS.
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