After a long formation, CU decided at the end of last year to rule again with VVD, D66 and CDA. Earlier, party leader Geert Jan Segers indicated that he no longer sees this due to Prime Minister Mark Root (VVD)’s role in “job affairs elsewhere”. CU turned out after all, but not all members are comfortable with it, it turned out Saturday during the conference in Zwolle.

Because the new government has already promised “new momentum” and a new management culture, but supporters still see little of this. References were made to CDA Minister Hugo de Jonge, who made a word game about his involvement in the Sywert van Lienden mask deal and to the Prime Minister, who, according to several CU members, still has a selective memory.

So CU member Anthony Fountain wants to see a change of course in the CU faction in the House. “If the management culture changes, we can be very proud of that as a CU. No? We are partly responsible for that,” he warns.

His proposal was generously adopted by members of his party. The question is whether the party leadership actually considers it a change of course. CU previously did not hesitate to support the censure proposal as a coalition party, when the process of evacuating interpreters and embassy staff from Afghanistan went wrong. As a result, Ministers KAG (Foreign Affairs) and Biejlefeld (Department of Defense) resigned.

Although the motion has been adopted, many CU members want to make sure that tight CU oversight doesn’t turn into a different direction, which is also being observed in the House: a culture of accountability. During a discussion about the new governance culture and what it should entail, one panelist expressed the struggle within its ranks this way: “We are not a party to a ruthless accounting culture, but we are not a party to a culture of cover-up. Either. He prefers seeing a ‘culture of grace’.”

Earlier this week, the House of Representatives cracked hard. Prime Minister Rutte got a no-confidence vote for not archiving text messages on his old Nokia phone. Rutte a bit during that discussion. He noted that he believed he had not broken any rules and that there was very little trust in him. “If the trust isn’t there, I’ll do something else.” This led to disgruntled faces in opposition. She says Rota contributed to the mistrust itself. It is their duty to check on Rutte closely.

The state of politics worries the leader of CU Segers. According to him, the city of The Hague ended up in a “devastating role-playing game”. “We’ve had a miserable political year,” he explained in his speech at the conference. “We are facing each other. We see the opposition saying up front: This will not work. And a cabinet saying about the house: These are just difficult people.”

At Segers it feels like a ‘desert trek’. He sees only one solution as a way out of the trap: a return to political ideals, away from the events. “I yearn for reasonable cooperation and consultation. This country has become wonderful. I want us not to get caught up in ourselves, but to do what we are called to do.”

He indicated that his party would not avoid taboos during this period. He referred to issues such as the potential downturn of aviation and addressing the use of laughing gas.