They actually can. Nationalization is a thing. And if they do it would also put a nice big dent in any future privatization plans because there is a good chance that the shareholders of those privatized companies would lose money in such a deal. Rightly so, after all they plucked the system.
In NL we had pretty good public transport, good healthcare at low costs and good prices for utilities. Then the privatization wave happened and all of that went out the window whilst a lot of entities (foreign as well as national) lined their pockets. I'm all for clawing it back. And don't get me started on selling KLM to Air France and Hoogovens to - eventually - Tata. Short term thinking with long term massive negative consequences.
