Rutte IV coalition (Netherlands, VVD-D66-CDA-CU)

Doctrine — stated goals and content

Liberal-centrist Rutte-era orthodoxy under climate and housing stress — a continuation of the VVD-D66 fiscally conservative / socially liberal consensus but now forced to address the three crises the previous three Rutte cabinets had deferred: the nitrogen (stikstof) rulings, the Toeslagenaffaire childcare-benefit scandal, and the housing shortage. Centre of gravity: centre / centre-right on fiscal, centre on regulatory, pro-EU, pro-climate. Signature content: (i) 25bn-euro National Rural Area Programme (NPLG) and farm buyout funds in response to the May 2019 Raad van State Programma Aanpak Stikstof (PAS) annulment, with a 2030 50% nitrogen-reduction target; (ii) Wet toekomst pensioenen (Wtp) enacted 30 May 2023, the largest Dutch pension reform in decades — converting the second-pillar occupational system from defined-benefit collective contracts to individual defined-contribution "solidarity" or "flexible" premium schemes with transition by 2028; (iii) Box-3 wealth-tax remediation after the Hoge Raad's December 2021 Kerst-arrest declared the fictitious-yield system unlawful — Wet rechtsherstel box 3 (2022) and Overbruggingswet 2023 with a promised real-return system; (iv) Toeslagenaffaire compensation programme (UHT, 30,000-euro + case-by-case) after the 2020-2021 Kamerondervragingscommissie reckoning; Rutte III collapsed over this January 2021, Rutte IV executed the payout; (v) record energy-price interventions 2022-2023 — energieplafond (price cap, January-December 2023), windfall levy on fossil producers, 23bn-euro Klimaatfonds; (vi) housing — Nationale Woon- en Bouwagenda targeting 900,000 homes by 2030, Wet Betaalbare Huur mid-market rent regulation enacted July 2024; (vii) record increase in asylum reception pressure drove the July 2023 coalition collapse over family-reunification caps. Entered with 78/150 seats; VVD won again but D66 halved, CDA collapsed; the coalition never recovered the popularity of Rutte III's early phase. Approval dropped below 20% by mid-2023. Provincial elections 15 March 2023 saw BBB (farmer party) win the most seats in Eerste Kamer, functionally breaking the government's upper-house majority. Coherence: moderate — the pension-reform and Toeslagenaffaire remediation were genuinely executed; the nitrogen, housing, and asylum programmes were enacted on paper but delivered sluggishly.