Former spy chief Dick Schoof sworn in as new Dutch prime minister

Dutch King Willem-Alexander swore in the new ministers and state secretaries at the royal Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague on Tuesday.

Transcript

00:00Former Dutch intelligence chief Dick Schoof has been sworn in as Prime Minister at the

00:09head of a right-wing coalition government promising to implement the Netherlands' strictest

00:14ever asylum and immigration policy.

00:17The independent candidate is succeeding departing Prime Minister Mark Root, who is set to become

00:23the next Secretary General of NATO after 14 years in office at The Hague.

00:34It comes more than seven months after the veteran anti-Islam populist leader Hert Wilders'

00:40electoral victory in November.

00:43But after a series of negotiations, he was forced to give up on his own ambitions to

00:48be Prime Minister to keep the coalition talks on track.

00:53Some partners considered his anti-Islam and Euro-sceptic statements too extreme to lead

00:58the nation.

01:01So instead of having their own leaders stand for Prime Minister, the four coalition partners

01:06– the Freedom Party, the Farmers' Party, the liberal-conservative BVD and the new anti-corruption

01:13party NSC – agreed to compromise on Schoof.