{"id":352435,"date":"2025-11-03T11:03:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T11:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/352435\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T11:03:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T11:03:18","slug":"as-the-netherlands-moves-to-the-center-brussels-is-watching-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/352435\/","title":{"rendered":"As the Netherlands moves to the center, Brussels is watching \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Schoof\u2019s administration had begun with high expectations \u2014 exemptions on asylum, nitrogen and nature rules, and a lower contribution to the EU budget \u2014 but the reality in Brussels proved unforgiving. The Netherlands often found itself isolated, and its attempts to secure \u201copt-outs\u201d were quietly abandoned.<\/p>\n<p>A Jetten premiership could reverse this pattern. Though similarly pragmatic, even Schoof\u2019s predecessor Mark Rutte was ultimately cautious, wary of treaty reform and collective borrowing. But Jetten signals a readiness to go further, as D66 sees the Netherlands as a natural bridge-builder and a key player in European integration.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, part of the Schoof government\u2019s weakness was its lack of European experience. A technocrat without party backing, he struggled to build political capital in Brussels. Jetten, by contrast, is well-connected. Like Rutte, he belongs to Renew Europe group, the liberal alliance associated with French President Emmanuel Macron \u2014 a link that once amplified Dutch influence beyond its size.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2243594227-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7432707\"  \/>And if D66 leader Rob Jetten can succeed in becoming the party\u2019s first prime minister, it would mark a decisive shift in the country\u2019s policy toward the bloc. |  Pierre Crom\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Of course, today even this network has become fragile. Macron\u2019s domestic troubles have diminished his clout in Brussels, and with it, the gravitational pull of the liberal camp.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Brussels itself is more fragmented than ever. European politics has become a patchwork of competing national priorities, with southern members demanding more collective investment, northern countries \u2014 including the Netherlands \u2014 still preaching fiscal discipline, eastern members prioritizing defense and security, and western governments focused on industrial policy and competitiveness.<\/p>\n<p>Then, there are the external pressures to consider: The U.S. expects Europe to shoulder more of its own defense, while China is forcing the bloc to rethink its economic dependencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Schoof\u2019s administration had begun with high expectations \u2014 exemptions on asylum, nitrogen and nature rules, and a lower&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":352436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,168293,168294,168295,90,102001,22200,172428,8955,50,172429,7840,7841,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-352435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-cooperation","9":"tag-dick-schoof","10":"tag-dutch-election-2025","11":"tag-dutch-politics","12":"tag-elections","13":"tag-elections-in-europe","14":"tag-european-politics","15":"tag-euroskeptics","16":"tag-mark-rutte","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-rob-jetten","19":"tag-stability","20":"tag-the-netherlands","21":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115485436951504997","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}