Finance experts join coalition talks; Wilders, Rutte keep mum

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Finance experts, including the president of the Dutch central bank, have been invited for talks with the negotiator putting together a new coalition government, the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday.

The paper says Coen Teulings of the government's macro-economic policy unit, caretaker finance minister Jan Kees de Jager van Financiën and the central bank's Nout Wellink will meet Uri Rosenthal on Wednesday morning.

They will be ask to detail the difficult financial and economic situation facing the Netherlands, which queen Beatrix referred to when she appointed Rosenthal to the job.

Silence

Meanwhile, Liberal leader Mark Rutte and PVV founder Geert Wilders declined to go into details about their talks with Rosenthal on Tuesday evening. They have agreed to Rosenthal's request not to talk about the formation process, the paper said.

Later on Wednesday, CDA leader Maxime Verhagen will hold talks with Rosenthal. Yesterday he refused to join round the table discussions with Wilders and Rutte, saying they first had to decide if they could work together.

The negotiator is looking to put together a right-wing coalition made up of the VVD, anti-Islam PVV and CDA. The VVD emerged as the biggest party in last week's general election by just one seat and the PVV made the most gains.

Support for the CDA almost halved. But Wilders needs to get Verhagen on board if he is to be in government. The other parties have all ruled out a coalition with the PVV which wants an end to non-western immigration and a ban on the Koran.

© DutchNews.nl

Comments have been closed for this article.