DutchNews Podcast

Prinsjesdag was a day of sound and fury, with saboteurs disrupting the railways, protesters spray-painting the Royal route, and a King's speech signifying nothing but political paralysis. Rob Jetten's calls to the...

Budget Day promises to be full of drama this year as rising inflation and living costs put further pressure on the coalition parties. Freight traffic on inland waterways dropped to its lowest level during the summer...

Rob Jetten’s hopes of doing a budget deal with the opposition are dashed when the three coalition parties can't agree who to bring on board. Villagers in Gelderland are caught in the crossfire of a deadly gang war when...

After seven years of gridlock, stalled negotiations, upturned flags and tractor protests, the government believes it has a solution to the nitrogen emissions problem. The coalition parties try frantically to garner...

Children's rights were neglected and their well-being suffered during the coronavirus lockdowns, the inquiry into the pandemic is told this week. The Netherlands' first ever code red warning for weather is issued as day...

The Japanese emperor visits the national war memorial to commemorate the victims of his country's occupation of Indonesia. Over at the World Cup, Oranje do their bit for diplomatic relations by conceding a late...

New European rules on asylum come into force, but the Dutch immigration service warns it will take a year to clear the backlog. An extradition treaty aimed at busting drug gangs is signed, while the net tightens around...

In the wake of the recent asylum riots, we unpick the Dutch far-right landscape with the help of Leiden university professor Sarah de Lange. Voters' confidence in Rob Jetten's cabinet has plunged in the first 100 days...

Social affairs minister Hans Vijlbrief cans the cabinet’s plans to extend the retirement age in the hope of avoiding a summer of strikes. Accusations fly in parliament in a bad-tempered debate on asylum, as the...

As the atmosphere outside asylum centres grows heated and the debate becomes increasingly poisonous, Rob Jetten sends in a crack team of civil servants to lend moral support. A changing of the guard at Schiphol leads to...

An outbreak of a rat-borne virus on a cruise ship triggers mass anxiety as phrases like "self-isolation" and "test and trace" re-enter the lexicon. Local mayors are growing increasingly frustrated with The Hague's...

The army is feeling the heat after several wildfires break out during training excercises in tinderbox conditions. The king gets his skates on and straddles some Frisian dikes for his birthday bash this year. Protests...

Vaudevillian scenes in the Senate as the PVV block their own asylum bill before blaming D66 for not wanting to soil their hands with it. The cabinet still isn't willing to cut fuel prices but hopes cheap train tickets...

Those who can, plan; those who can't, plan scenarios. At any rate, that seems to be how the Dutch government is preparing for the impending crisis triggered by the war in Iran and blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. It...

The Netherlands promises to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open, but only once the hellfire has died down. Continuing the theme of negotiating with scoundrels, curators in Assen and Bucharest breathe a sigh of relief...