D66 pulls out of Amsterdam coalition talks

Friday 19 March 2010

The Liberal democratic party D66 has pulled out of talks to form a new city council executive in Amsterdam because Labour's leader Lodewijk Asscher has been appointed temporary mayor.

Asscher will take the job for three months, until a formal replacement for Job Cohen is appointed. Cohen has left to lead the Labour party's general election campaign.

Labour and D66 said earlier this week they planned to form the core of a new coalition in the capital.

Power hungry

D66 leader Ageeth Telleman said the decision to give Asscher the job temporarily was a sign of the 'behind closed doors politics' adopted by the Labour party and its hunger for power.

'We will not go back to the negotiating table' unless he turns the job down, she says in the Parool.

Labour and other city councillors have reacted with astonishment to Telleman's decision.

© DutchNews.nl

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