Pieter Omtzigt, the agitator who plays the outsider – Libération

Given the winner of the legislative elections this Wednesday, November 22 by certain polls, the center-right dissident, an old hand in national politics, presents himself as an alternative to traditional parties and maintains vagueness about his intentions in the event of success.

Caspar Veldkamp receives in the office of the New Social Contract (NSC) at the Parliament in The Hague, temporarily located within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs due to work on the historic site. Campaign posters of Pieter Omtzigt, the party’s candidate in the Dutch legislative elections this Wednesday, November 22, cover the walls – no slogan, just the face of the 49-year-old MP, on a blue and yellow background. A few people are busy behind their computer screens. “The party only has three employees. We are still a small start-up,” smiles Caspar Veldkamp, ​​former diplomat fourth on Pieter Omtzigt’s list. This is because the NSC has experienced a meteoric rise in recent weeks: founded in August, the party is given the lead in certain polls, neck and neck with the right-wing VVD party, which governed the country until ‘to the resignation of Prime Minister Mark Rutte in July, the left-wing coalition led by former vice-president of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, even with the extreme dr