Coalition talks resume with five party leaders as right-wing plans collapse

Talks on forming a new coalition government will resume on Friday with five party leaders following the collapse of talks involving the anti-Islam PVV on Thursday.


Negotiator Uri Rosenthal will meet CDA leader Maxime Verhagen, D66’s Alexander Pechtold, Femke Halsema of GroenLinks and the VVD’s Mark Rutte as well as Cohen.
The five parties could form two workable coalitions – a combination of the VVD, Labour and CDA or ‘purple plus’ – all the parties minus the CDA.
After last week’s general election, Rutte said several times he did not consider the purple plus option would be feasible because of the difference of opinion between the VVD and Labour on government cuts.
Cooperation
However, Labour, D66 and GroenLinks have all said they are willing to work together. ‘Purple plus should be looked at now,’ Cohen told reporters. ‘Given the election results, it is the logical step. Three of the four parties involved won seats.’
Labour lost three seats and now has 30 seats in the new parliament, the VVD added nine to 31. The CDA has just 21. It’s vote almost halved last week. D66 also boost its vote by seven seats to 10, and GroenLinks by three to ten.
Talks on forming a coalition between the PVV, VVD and CDA fell apart yesterday. The CDA said it would not join the negotiations until the Liberals and anti-Islam party agreed on a number of key issues such as ethnic registration and a Muslim headscarf tax.

Thank you for donating to DutchNews.nl.

We could not provide the Dutch News service, and keep it free of charge, without the generous support of our readers. Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter, and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day.

Make a donation