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Effort to form new Dutch coalition government hits impasse

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The Hague: Tough negotiations to try to form a Dutch coalition government appeared to hit an impasse on Monday, despite the winners of the March elections


taking a weekend to think their options over.


Veteran politician Edith Schippers, who is in charge of the negotiations, announced last week that four-way talks had collapsed mainly due to differences over immigration, and spent Monday huddled in meetings seeking to break the stalemate.


The Liberal Party (VVD) of Mark Rutte, the outgoing prime minister, emerged as the largest party in the March 15 vote, capturing 33 out of the 150 seats in the Dutch lower house of parliament.


But his initial bid to form a four-party coalition collapsed after eight weeks of talks when differences with the ecologist leftwing GroenLinks were too great for Rutte and two other leading parties — the right-wing Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the progressive Democracy Party D66.


Both the CDA and D66 have 19 seats each, but in combination with Rutte’s VVD they still fall short of the 76 MPs needed for a parliamentary majority.


On Friday, Edith Schippers also ordered everyone to think hard over the weekend about possible combinations, as the three parties search now for a fourth or even fifth coalition partner.


While the conservative Christian Union was seen as a natural choice — and with its five MPs would give the coalition a 76-seat majority — the leader of the progressive D66 is reportedly unwilling to see the alliance pulled more to the right.


All eyes on Monday were on the Socialist Party, and Rutte’s outgoing coalition partner the Labour Party, which saw its support melt away in the March vote going from 38 MPs to just nine.


Despite winning 14 seats, the Socialists made a pre-election campaign promise not to enter into government with Rutte. Wounded by its March defeat, Labour has also said it would not participate in the new coalition.


“All sorts of hurdles are being put up”, the CDA leader Sybrand Buma, told the public broadcaster NOS. “It’s time to make choices.”


Rutte also voiced frustration. “The VVD is the largest party, but we are not in a position to voice our preference,” he told NOS.


Rutte has meanwhile vowed not to work with the anti-Islam, anti-EU Geert Wilders even though his far-right Freedom Party boosted its support to come second in the polls, winning 20 seats in March.


Coalition governments and arduous negotiations are common in The Netherlands. Rutte took 54 days in 2012 to form his coalition,


while the record stands at 208 days in 1977. — AFP


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