Netherlands' coalition government takes office led by youngest-ever premier Rob Jetten

Audio By Carbonatix

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A new minority Dutch coalition government took office Monday led by Rob Jetten, the Netherlands’ youngest-ever prime minister who will have to use all his bridge-building skills to pass laws and see out a full four-year term in office.

Jetten, 38, heads a three-party administration made up of his centrist D66, the center-right Christian Democrats and the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy.

Jetten, who is the Netherlands’ first openly gay premier, said in a post on X it was “an enormous honor to be able to get to work as prime minister.”

The coalition parties together hold only 66 of the lower house of parliament’s 150 seats, so Jetten will have to negotiate with opposition lawmakers to find support for every piece of legislation his government wants to pass. The largest opposition bloc, the newly merged Green Left and Labor Party, has already signaled it will push for changes to some of Jetten's plans.

Jetten and his team of ministers took their oath of office in the presence of King Willem-Alexander in the ornate Orange Hall of the royal palace in a forest on the edge of The Hague. The king wished the new government good luck “in uncertain times.”

A small group of demonstrators from the Extinction Rebellion environmental group protested outside the gates of the palace during the ceremony and sounded sirens as the new ministers lined up for a formal photo.

Following the traditional photo of the new Cabinet on the steps of the palace, the new government ministers held their first meeting.

The Netherlands' main LGBTQI+ organization, COC, welcomed Jetten's appointment.

“The new premier can be a role model for people from the rainbow community,” it said in a statement. “It shows that your sexual orientation doesn’t have to matter. That you can become a construction worker, a doctor, a lawyer, and even prime minister.”

The government was sworn in 117 days after national elections that Jetten’s party won by a narrow margin over the Party for Freedom led by anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders. The final result was decided only after a count of postal ballots after the fourth national election since 2017 in the politically splintered Netherlands.

The new government took office a day before the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Jetten has pledged to continue his country's strong support for Kyiv as it battles the forces of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has also said he will continue spending to strengthen the Dutch military in times of geopolitical uncertainty.

Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, the new defense minister, will be in charge of overseeing that goal and she underscored its importance in her first message on social media after taking up her post.

“Our own security is at stake, and we must not be naive about that,” she posted on X. “If we want freedom to prevail and our way of life to endure, then the Netherlands and Europe must take matters into their own hands.”