The What The Hell Els Could Go Wrong Edition - Week 39 - 2025

The election campaign heats up with rumours of a meltdown in the VVD, Henri Bontenbal being roasted on the dance floor and Volt blowing a fuse over the radio debates. Dutch universities speak out against budget cuts after slipping further down the international league table. Police announce a breakthrough in the investigation into the murder of a 19-year-old Hungarian sex worker. Forest rangers crack down on illegal mushroom picking in Brabant. And can Dick Advocaat round off his footballing odyssey with a calypso flourish in Curacao?

The election campaign gets off to an ominous start as Amsterdam puts up billboards with an American accent and Geert Wilders goes rage-canvassing on Twitter. The government bows to pressure to allow a handful of wounded children from Gaza to be flown to the Netherlands for treatment, while coming under pressure to stop sending fighter jet parts to Israel. You'll need a big pile of capital if you want to buy the house in Overijssel where Karl Marx wrote large parts of his seminal work. And in sport, Go Ahead Eagles are the highest fliers in an otherwise miserable week for Dutch football clubs in Europe. Karl Marx house for sale: https://www.funda.nl/detail/koop/zaltbommel/huis-gasthuisstraat-12/43892914/

The eruption of far-right violence in The Hague destroys the fragile hopes of a civil, constructive election campaign. Housing minister Mona Keijzer keeps Marjolein Faber's legacy alive by ploughing on with her asylum policies in the face of a withering assessment by the Council of State. More than 40% of voters say Gaza will influence their choice on October 29 and half want tougher sanctions against Israel. The Dutch Rugby Union decides to allow trans players in women's teams. And Rotterdam's Blijdorp zoo hatches a plan to rescue a batch of stowaways from Iceland. Link to Italian member of the resistance: https://www.vprogids.nl/podcasts/lees/artikelen/2024/Luciana--Italiaanse-overgrootmoeder-blijkt-verzetsheldin-te-zijn.html

Prinsjesdag is usually a day to delight fashion fans and financial nerds, but this year's edition fell short on both fronts as the parties got stuck into the election campaign. Train strikes are called off after unions agree a pay deal, but Schiphol is facing more disruption. Newly discovered CCTV footage could cast a different light on the violence that surrounded the Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv football match last November. And we reveal the secret recipe that could untie your tongue if you're struggling to speak Dutch.

Usually Treasury Tuesday is the high point of September, but this year it was overshadowed by Super Saturday, when Dutch politicians stood up on a conference stage and said who they didn't want to form a coalition with. Foreign affairs minister David van Weel asks the Russian ambassador how 19 drones veered into Polish airspace, just as the VVD abruptly changes course on sanctions against Israel. A group of radicalised boomers are accused of plotting to blow up the Nato summit and the mayor of Leeuwarden. And Vitesse Arnhem enjoy the kind of comeback NSC can only dream of as their hastily assembled squad gets ready for a very late kick-off.

The podcast returns with a look back to a summer in which the government managed the unprecedented feat of collapsing for a second time. The political parties' manifestos are dominated by the issues of housing, immigration and how to sweep up the NSC vote. The brutal murder of a 17-year-old girl in Amsterdam becomes fodder for the far right when an asylum seeker is accused of the crime. Vitesse Arnhem are given another reprieve in the long-running saga of their imminent decline. A painting looted by the Nazis turns up on an estate agent's website in Argentina. And we explain why if you're listening to this podcast on your lunch break, you're probably not in Belgium.

In a hilarious and intricate farce set in The Hague, Geert Wilders plays a man who wakes up every morning unable to remember if he still supports his own asylum bill. Another victim of Wilders' amnesia, singer Douwe Bob, has to flee the country when Dilan Yesilgöz forms a strike partnership with a pro-Israeli football hooligan. PFAS "forever chemicals" are set to join nitrogen compounds and CO2 on the list of pollutants that the Netherlands firmly resolves to do nothing about. And in sport, the men's cricket and women's football teams have busy weeks ahead, while the Wimbledon dream is already over for the Dutch hopefuls.

Mark Rutte's plan to treat Donald Trump like Orange royalty paid dividends at the Nato summit in The Hague. Specifically 5% dividends, as the 32 nations agreed to raise their defence spending with a definition of "vital infrastructure" as elastic as Rutte's spine. Geert Wilders' PVV party threatens to sabotage its own asylum bill in protest at the other parties undermining Marjolein Faber's "brilliant" plans. Housing minister Mona Keijzer believes darker hallways and even steeper staircases are the answer to the housebuilding crisis. And a creeping horror is back to terrorise the nation's oak trees.

The election campaign gathers pace as Dilan Yesilgöz goes on the attack against GroenLinks-PvdA while also slamming the door on another coalition with Geert Wlders' PVV. NSC narrowly avoids descending into chaos as one of the contenders in the race to lead the party into electoral oblivion drops out. Meanwhile, Dick Schoof secures a mandate to raise defence spending ahead of next week's Nato summit with the support of Frans Timmermans. Amsterdam city council is criticised for letting disinformation thrive following the hit-and-run attacks on Israeli football fans in November. Fewer Dutch adults are smoking and drinking, but hiking cigarettes prices is not persuading hardcore smokers to stop. Scheveningen gears up for a vintage raw herring season, and there's news of yet another last-minute bailout package for the crisis club Vitesse Arnhem.

Eleven months after Dick Schoof's cabinet took office and 10½ months later than expected, the Dutch cabinet has collapsed after Geert Wilders pulled out of the four-way right-wing coalition. We look at how he managed to stir up a full-scale row over immigration with three parties that agreed with him and how the other parties were left wrong footed. And we ask how voters will respond to Wilders' gamble in the upcoming elections – whenever they may be.