In 1994 a “palace dispute” raged between Queen Beatrix and D66 leader Hans Van Mierlo. This is stated in Van Mierlo’s diary notes from that time. Journalist Hubert Smeets writes about it in a biography of the D66 politician that will be published tomorrow: A wonderful politician, Hans van Mierlo 1931-2010. De Volkskrant was the first to quote from the book this morning.
D66 achieved a major election victory in 1994 and Van Mierlo was a strong supporter of a cabinet without the CDA. When the formation was at an impasse, the Queen asked Van Mierlo, according to his own notes, whether he wanted to keep the country ungovernable. “The fatherland is waiting for you, Mr. Van Mierlo. (..). If you do nothing, you will be put aside.”
Others were annoyed by him
Van Mierlo would have replied that he did not want to sacrifice his party to something he could not explain to the voters and that he did not think that the “CDA could join PvdA and D66.” “She was surprised”, Smeets quotes the diary of the D66 foreman. At one point, the Queen would have become “false” in another conversation with Van Mierlo. She told him that others were annoyed by him, the diary says.
Smeets further writes that, according to Van Mierlo, the queen spoke “with almost hatred” in her voice about what had happened to the CDA. (That party suffered a huge defeat in 1994). She would have been “erschüttert” about “what they did to Lubbers. And Brinkman too. And Hirsch Ballin.” Those three were then leaders in the CDA.
Cook burnt
Smeets’ book also contains critical quotes from Van Mierlo about PvdA leader Kok. “Kok is a grumpy person who does his best not to be permanently in a burnt state.” And a little further: “Cook looks at me darkly. Has a classic plague mood.”
A little later in the formation, the queen forced a breakthrough. When the advice did not point in one direction, she asked Kok as an informateur to write a draft of a coalition agreement and to submit that draft to various parties. Kok then came to the conclusion that PvdA, VVD, D66 and CDA all responded positively to his design, but he headed for a coalition of the first three parties, which eventually came about: the first purple cabinet led by Kok.
Poker at a high level
In the NOS Radio 1 News Biographer Smeets said this morning that Van Mierlo kept a diary irregularly, but that he supplemented it daily during the 1994 election campaign and formation. Smeets understands that with his quotes he “may have put Beatrix in a bit of a difficult position”, because the head of state is inviolable.
“But I wrote a biography of Hans van Mierlo. So I describe the cabinet formation of 1994 more or less from the perspective of Van Mierlo. His notes are important for me to show that he was really on a very high level in those months. level of poker. “