Rita Verdonk, the controversial former immigration minister, will not be expelled from the Liberal party (VVD) for the time being, the party’s vice-chairman Rogier van der Sande told tv news programme EenVandaag on Tuesday night. He says talks with Verdonk are on-going.

Verdonk was expelled from the VVD’s parliamentary group two weeks ago but decided to keep her seat in the lower chamber as a one-man party. According to Van der Sande this situation is untenable but the party statues do not forbid it.
According to reliable sources, senior VVD members such as Henk Vonhoff have been brought in to talk to Verdonk, the AD reports on Wednesday.