On November 22, Peter Omtsigt will be one of the big winners in the House of Representatives elections. His new party, NSC, came from nowhere with 20 seats in the House of Representatives and is the fourth party in the Netherlands. More importantly, the party is virtually indispensable to any potential government coalition.

Confidence declines

Omtzgut, who achieved great fame for his efforts on behalf of victims of the benefits case, enjoyed great popularity among his voters. Opinion polls have shown for months that his voters’ confidence in Umzigt is about 100 percent.

But that changes radically when he withdraws from the formation negotiations at the beginning of February. Omtzigt is shocked by the state of Dutch public finances and halts discussions with the PVV, VVD and BBB. It leaves other negotiators confused.

One pollster from RTL News Gijs Rademaker says NSC voters’ confidence would then drop to 78 percent. After controversy over the same formation round led by informant Ronald Blasterk, this percentage dropped to 53 percent in mid-February.

Emotional outbursts

During that period, stories also emerged about Peter Omtzigt’s emotional outbursts during negotiations.

Many voters left the NSC after Umtsigt’s withdrawal, although the party later resumed negotiations with the Party for Freedom, the Party for Freedom and Democracy, and the BPP. In fact, Umtsigt is achieving his goal, and informants and negotiators are now aiming to form a government outside parliament. This is something Umtzigt has long advocated in the past.

Opinion polls indicate that his party now has only 10 parliamentary seats, which halves the result of the November elections.

Not recovered

Right now, trust among NSC voters remains very fragile, Rademaker says. “At the moment, 68% trust Umtsigt as party leader. This percentage is still not high, because the voters who said goodbye to the party at the beginning of February, disappointed by its position and actions, hardly returned. Even though the formation is going well, “It’s doing well in calmer waters, but confidence remains very low.”

“In general, we consider a level of confidence below 80 percent among our supporters to be a worrying situation for the party leader.”

unaffected

Omtzigt now seems to have overcome the emotional outbursts. In response to journalists’ questions, informant Elbert Dijkgraaf denied that emotions were still as high as they had previously been during the formation.

However, negotiations with other parties appear to have remained untouched or mixed. According to those concerned, Umtsigt cannot resist complaining about the stupidity of the other negotiators.

European elections

Today, the National Security Council is holding a members’ meeting. There, Umtzigt and other members of the National Security Council will discuss the party’s election manifesto for the European elections on June 6. The list of European candidates has also been determined. in A poll at the end of March from Ipsos NSC has two seats. There are a total of 31 seats for the Netherlands in the European Parliament.