Caretaker prime minister Mark Rutte has said that no further party has been excluded from coalition negotiations, although ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Segers told NOS on Tuesday that he didn’t feel ‘welcome’.

At the moment, Rutte’s VVD and the liberal democratic D66 are trying to build a coalition.

But the fly in the ointment is whether the government remains relatively right wing, as with the previous administration, or whether it takes a swing to the left by including the PvdA labour party and GroenLinks green left party.

In order to have a majority in both houses, there would need to be a five-party coalition between the VVD, D66, PvdA, GroenLinks and the CDA Christian Democratic Appeal. But the CDA has said it does not want to be part of a more left-leaning government.

ChristenUnie, the minor religious party in the last administration, disagrees radically with the D66 liberal democrats on moral issues such as assisted suicide and D66 leader Sigrid Kaag has said she does not see a future government together.

The potential government parties are now debating a potential coalition agreement put together by Rutte and Kaag. It is now 154 days since the election and pundits are not hopeful that a government will be formed soon.