New cabinet negotiator Herman Tjeenk Willink will begin holding talks with party leaders on Monday, after being asked to take over the process by queen Beatrix on Friday.

The previous negotiator Uri Rosenthal had recommended the queen appoint two negotiators, one Labour and one Liberal, to work on a cross party cabinet.
However, Beatrix has opted for one Labour negotiator to conduct an intermediary phase after Rosenthal reached a stalemate.
Now Tjeenk Willink, deputy chairman of the government’s Council of State advisory body, has been asked by the queen to ‘find out about the steps which need to be taken to form a cabinet which can count on a fruitful alliance with parliament’.
Tjeenk Willink said his job is to ask party leaders who they think can lead the next stage of the talks, not to begin negotiations. And he admitted his remit ‘is vague’.
Middle ground
On Friday, Rosenthal said the next Dutch government should be based around the VVD and Labour (PvdA) parties and drawn from the ‘broad middle ground.’
Rosenthal was reporting back after two weeks of talks attempting to find a workable coalition following the June 9 general election.
The VVD and D66 Liberal parties, the CDA, GroenLinks and Labour are all prepared to join a cabinet and have not ruled out any of the other parties, Rosenthal said. The VVD won 31 seats in the general election, Labour 30.
According to the NRC, two options are on the table: a left-centre-right coalition between the VVD, CDA and PvdA, possibly with either D66 or GroenLinks; and the ‘purple plus’ variant made up of the two Liberal parties, Labour and GroenLinks.
Scandal

Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam PVVm has been excluded from the next round of coalition talks. This is a ‘scandal’ and ‘insult to the voter,’ a furious Wilders told reporters. The PVV won 24 seats, or 15% of the votes, in the general election.
Labour, GroenLinks and D66 all made it clear before the election they would not join a cabinet which included the PVV.