In the Netherlands, a rebellious member of parliament left the Christian Democratic Party, putting it to a considerable test.
It has become even more difficult for him to “function” in the party, wrote Pieter Omtzigt on Twitter on Saturday after his internal accounting with the party leadership had become public last week.
He regretted this.
Thomas Gutschker
Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.
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Many observers assume, of course, that the report with serious allegations against chairman Wopke Hoekstra was deliberately pierced from Omtzigt's environment and that he aimed at the open breach.
The 47-year-old politician, who played a role similar to Friedrich Merz in the Union, also announced that he would keep his seat in parliament.
That could be the starting position to create a split from the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) to get part of the grassroots and possibly other MPs on its side.
Omtzigt had narrowly lost the primary election of the top candidate and has since seen himself as a victim of a conspiracy against him.
He is currently only able to act to a limited extent because he is suffering from burnout and will be represented in parliament until the end of September.
The CDA won 14 out of 150 seats in the parliamentary elections in March. If elected now, according to a poll published on Sunday, he would only have 8 seats. Forming a government is difficult in a parliament with 19 different political groups.