Geert Wilders must have known that his favorite for the office of Dutch Prime Minister was not beyond doubt. Otherwise the right wing politician would have officially suggested the name Ronald Plasterk to his negotiating partners in good time. Instead, he only leaked it to the media last week, shortly before his PVV agreed on a right-wing government alliance with three other parties. As if he wanted to test how the public would react – so that he could pull the emergency brake if necessary.
Plasterk, the candidate who was never allowed to be one, took himself out of the race on Monday. Reports that had appeared about him that cast doubt on his integrity were “untrue,” he said, but stood in the way of his appointment as prime minister. He is no longer available. Things could hardly have started worse for the designated new cabinet. It remains headless for now.
How could this happen? Ronald Plasterk initially seemed suitable for this alliance, which is not a love marriage, but a union of convenience. There are worlds apart between Wilders and Pieter Omtzigt from the “New Social Contract”, both in terms of content and people. As a social democrat who was close to Wilders’ national populism but did not come from a right-wing milieu, Plasterk could have built bridges. In addition, the trained molecular biologist was considered qualified – not only through long-standing ministerial positions, but also through spectacular successes as a scientific entrepreneur.
But then the 67-year-old came under pressure from several sides. On the one hand, the newspaper drew NRC Handelsblad through meticulous research, an unfavorable picture of his actions as a manager. Plasterk founded the company Frame with two biotech experts in 2018, which marketed a novel cancer therapy. In 2022, the German company Curevac (headquarters in Tübingen, legal headquarters in the Netherlands, according to Wiki) bought the company for 32 million euros in order to incorporate the competitor. The database that forms the heart of the frame method is based crucially on the work of a research assistant at the University Hospital of Amsterdam, to whom Plasterk turned before founding the company. The patent he then registered is in his name alone. The University of Amsterdam, which initially took no offense, launched an investigation into the matter in April, which is still ongoing. The head of university oncology at the time had already made it clear that the university and the bona fide database creator had been duped.
And now all sorts of obvious sloppiness in Plasterk’s scientific work has been highlighted. He seems to have used identical pieces of evidence in different places in specialist articles, apparently per cut and paste reproduced. And this happened several times, which led to corresponding comments from the specialist journals and, in one case, to a retraction of the entire article Science Another allegation is that Plasterk falsely declared his company as a “small business” in 2022.
According to media reports, it was primarily Pieter Omtzigt who expressed doubts about Plasterk. Which has a lot to do with the troubled relationship between the two. At Wilders’ suggestion, Plasterk moderated the first coalition explorations after the November election. Omtzigt dropped it in January on the grounds that Plasterk had informed about budget risks too late. As revenge, Plasterk later let it be known that Omtzigt had borrowed his company car and chauffeur to inform journalists in a hotel about his exit. In order to smooth things over, Plasterk apologized in a letter to the editor to the tabloid at the weekend Telegraph at Omtzigt for his behavior in January. The end of the letter – “Sorry, Pieter” – immediately became a meme that cabaret artists and columnists enjoyed about Pentecost.
“You don’t deserve this, but I understand your decision,” Wilders tweeted to Plasterk on Monday. “In my opinion, you would have been an excellent prime minister.” What happens next remains to be seen. The right to propose the position remains with the PVV boss, who apparently cannot draw on a wealth of suitable candidates. The start of the new cabinet may be delayed. First, Parliament will debate on Wednesday and entrust the Christian Democrat Richard van Zwol with selecting the ministerial team.