The caretaker Dutch government has decided to shelve its plan to halve the healthcare deductible to €165 starting in 2027, insiders told the Telegraaf. The plan lacks sufficient support in parliament due to the political dynamics following the elections, the insiders said.
The PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB coalition agreement included a plan to structurally reduce the healthcare deductible from €385 to €165 starting in 2027 and to set a maximum deductible of €50 per treatment. This was at the PVV’s insistence. Geert Wilders’ party promised to scrap the healthcare deductible entirely in the previous election campaign.
The remaining Ministers of the now-twice-collapsed Schoof I Cabinet discussed the deductible during the Council of Ministers on Friday and agreed to postpone the plan “until further notice,” the Telegraaf’s insiders said. According to them, the government expects the proposal to die in parliament due to insufficient support.
The Council of State previously strongly criticized the plan, warning that it would increase premiums significantly, wouldn’t solve problems for the most vulnerable people in society, and would actually worsen the situation of people with disabilities.
Many political parties, including the now-largest party D66, took this criticism to heart and want to keep the deductible at €385 per year. The VVD, CDA, and JA21 even want to increase the deductible.
The VVD and CDA will almost certainly form part of the upcoming coalition talks. JA21 is also a likely candidate. The other likely candidate, GroenLinks-PvdA, still had reducing the deductible in its election program.
Several flights to Belgium were diverted to Schiphol Airport and Maastricht Aachen Airport on Tuesday evening because they couldn’t land at two Belgian airports. The airports in Brussels and Liège were closed for several hours due to drone activity in the area.
A spokesperson for the Maastricht Aachen Airport told ANP that at least four flights were diverted to them and at least two to Schiphol. According to NOS, Belgian flights also landed at Eindhoven Airport.
Notices in the departure hall of Brussels Airport informed travelers that air traffic is “temporarily disrupted due to an exceptional situation” and incoming flights were being diverted. Drones have regularly been sighted over Belgian airfields in recent days.
The Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken was a guest on a live talk show on Belgian television when the drones appeared. He was called off due to the drones and later briefly returned to explain that the airspace near Brussels had been closed because drones could endanger civil aviation. He then left, saying that his “place isn’t here right now,” according to the Belgian newspaper De Morgen.
Last month, the caretaker Dutch Defense Minister, Ruben Brekelmans, called recent drone sightings in Belgium a “worrying pattern.” Foreign Affairs Minister David van Weel urged vigilance. “Drones are available everywhere, in all shapes and sizes,” he said. “It is therefore very easy, in the context of broad warfare, to release a few of them somewhere and disrupt air traffic.”
The Dutch population grew by almost 80,000 people in the first three quarters of 2025. This growth is less strong than in the same period last year, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS). The growth is entirely due to migration, as deaths still outnumber births.
At the end of September, the Netherlands had just over 18 million inhabitants. In the first nine months, almost 250,000 immigrants arrived in the country, while more than 160,000 people left. A year earlier, approximately 200,000 people left, and over 300,000 arrived.
The declining growth is mainly due to a decrease in migration from other European countries. Fewer people from Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania settled in the Netherlands, while more left.
In the first nine months of this year, 4,000 more people died than were born. A year earlier, this number was 3,000.
PVV leader Geert Wilders has acknowledged that D66 received the most votes in the elections and congratulated its leader, Rob Jetten, on the victory for the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament. Although both parties are projected to win 26 seats, D66 leads the PVV by more than 28,000 votes in the preliminary count.
In The Hague, the largest party traditionally takes the initiative in forming a government and almost always provides the prime minister. Even if Wilders’ party had won, his chances of becoming prime minister were slim. Due to the PVV’s discriminatory policies and the turmoil during the previous Cabinet when the PVV was the largest party, most parties had excluded any cooperation with Wilders.
Earlier, Wilders hinted at possible vote tampering, but offered no credible evidence to support the claim. When his party won 37 seats and became the largest in the last elections, he did not take that step. “My main goal was to have it investigated,” he said Tuesday regarding his recent tweets. “The likelihood of gaining roughly 30,000 additional votes is low.” The official election results will be confirmed by the Electoral Council on Friday.
Former minister Wouter Koolmees has been appointed as a scout to guide the coalition formation process. He was nominated by D66 to meet with party leaders to explore options for a new government. Tweede Kamer chairman Martin Bosma announced the appointment at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, with discussions set to start on Wednesday.
All parties have given their unanimous approval to D66’s proposal. In his role as scout, Koolmees will first hold discussions with party leaders to explore potential options for a new coalition government.
Koolmees has until November 11 to complete his discussions. He will submit his report on that day, and two days later, in the Tweede Kamer, he will hold a debate on the findings and the process for forming a new coalition. The scout may also propose an informateur to guide the talks between the parties.
Koolmees had previously acted as both scout and informateur in 2021, helping form the Rutte IV Cabinet, a coalition of VVD, D66, CDA, and ChristenUnie. In a press conference, Bosma also emphasized Koolmees’ role as formateur in Rotterdam, where he successfully included Leefbaar and Denk in the city council coalition.
Koolmees is currently CEO of NS, his role will be taken by Eelco van Aasch on a temporary basis while Koolmees is working as scout. The Tweede Kamer would like a scout who “keeps some distance from day-to-day politics,” according to Bosma.
Tap water in Utrecht and nearby areas is once again safe for consumption, water company Vitens has confirmed. Recent test results show the supply is clean, allowing authorities to lift the boil-water advisory.
The boil-water advisory, in effect since Saturday, around 125,000 connections in the Vitens N.V. service area were affected by the boil-water advisory, including in Utrecht, Bilthoven, Bosch en Duin, Bunnik, De Bilt, Groenekan, Maarssen, Oud-Zuilen, Tienhoven, Westbroek, and Zeist.
The drinking water contained the intestinal bacterium enterococci, a bacterium that is naturally found in the human gut. Vitens is investigating the source of the contamination, stating that the bacterium originated from outside the system, possibly caused by a leak, high groundwater, or nearby maintenance activities. The company has not yet indicated when the cause will be known.
Vitens advises that if taps have not been used since the boil-water advisory, which had been set in place until Tuesday, the water should be run for a minute before use to thoroughly flush the household pipes.
Vitens immediately decommissioned the reservoir where the bacteria were found during the evening hours of Friday, leading into Saturday. “To make sure the drinking water network is now safe, we collected 20 water samples daily throughout the area under the boil-water advisory, taking them directly from customers’ taps,” the company said. “The samples were cultured for 48 hours. Following two consecutive clean results, we were able to lift the advisory for all 125,000 connections.”
Vitens has notified its customers that the boil-water advisory has been lifted, using channels such as email and text message.
The case against five men who kidnapped Amsterdam girl Insiya nine years ago will not be retried, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. The sentences imposed are upheld and final, the highest court said, following the recommendation from the Advocate General in July.
On 29 September 2016, multiple men forcibly abducted the then 2-year-old girl from her grandmother’s home in Amsterdam. Her father, Shehzad Hemani, the main suspect, hired an international team for the kidnapping and took her to India. The now 11-year-old girl is still believed to be there. Her mother, Nadia Rashid, has not had contact with her for nine years.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) called the kidnapping a thoroughly planned operation. Previous courts sentenced six kidnappers to up to four years in prison. One of them is Hemani’s cousin, Imran S., who is in India. Hemani was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison on appeal in May 2024. He, too, is in India. Despite repeated requests from the OM, India refuses to extradite them.
Hemani had filed a cassation petition with the Supreme Court, arguing that he had not received a fair trial. Due to the arrest warrant against him, he chose not to attend his trial in person and wanted to participate via a video link. The Court of Appeal rejected that request. According to the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal was permitted to make this decision, and that was not grounds for retrying the case.
Over the past nine years, Nadia Rashid has done everything in her power to get her daughter back. She took legal action in the Netherlands and India, contacted Ministers in both countries, asked Queen Maxima to intervene, appealed to international agencies, and posted countless videos worldwide in the hope that one would reach Insiya.
Rashid attended the Supreme Court verdict. She told RTL Nieuws that this ruling “confirms what I’ve known for nine years: that the perpetrators must be punished and that we can now simply call them perpetrators.” Despite nine years of consecutive courts confirming their sentencing, she has still not been reunited with her girl. “The perpetrators have now been brought to justice, but this doesn’t bring Insiya back,” she said.
