Rob Jetten being sworn as prime minister of the Netherlands would, not long ago, have seemed an exotic proposition. That he does so at the head of the country’s first modern minority government elevates the occasion from unusual to faintly vertiginous.

A cordon sanitaire has been drawn not merely around Wilders but around much of the terrain to the right of the VVD

A cordon sanitaire has been drawn not merely around Wilders but around much of the terrain to the right of the VVD

True, his party, the centre-left D66, finished first in the general election of 29 October, albeit with just 17 per cent of the vote. Yet the coalition he has assembled with the conservative VVD and the Christian Democratic CDA commands the support of just 43 per cent of the electorate. In parliamentary terms it is a minority; in political terms it is a high-wire act. Whether it resolves many voters’ concerns is another question entirely.

The early omens are not encouraging. According to pollster Maurice de Hond, only 27 per cent of voters expressed positive feelings when the coalition agreement was unveiled. Even among the faithful, enthusiasm is muted: 73 per cent of D66 voters approve, as do 72 per cent of CDA supporters, but fewer than half – 46 per cent – of VVD voters are content. It’s hardly a political honeymoon.

As for his political programme, Jetten has pledged to meet Nato’s more exacting defence spending criteria – at a price. A proposed annual €5.2 billion ‘freedom contribution’ will be skimmed from tax adjustments applied to citizens and businesses alike. A whopping €3.4 billion of this additional money will be donated each of the next three years to Ukraine. The rest will provide – badly needed – extra funding for the Dutch defence sector.

Meanwhile, other ‘investments’ are........

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