Cabinet negotiator Ruud Lubbers has asked the leaders of the VVD Liberals, Christian Democrats and anti-Islam PVV to sit down together and assess if they are capable of forming a right-wing government.

The talks would be simply to find out if there are sufficient grounds for entering formal negotiations and would take place without any mediators, Lubbers said.
CDA leader Maxime Verhagen, who would prefer Labour to the PVV, said after his meeting with Lubbers he would be prepared to talk, if the rest of the CDA MPs agree.
‘I see no other way because Labour is blocking a left-centre-right option by walking away,’ he said.
Labour leader Job Cohen is opposed to that three-way grouping because it involves two parties which lost in the June 9 general election.
Headscarves
CDA MPs are due to meet on Saturday to discuss a link-up with the VVD and PVV. Verhagen has consistently refused to talk to them until they agree on controversial issues such as Geert Wilders’ call for a tax on Muslim headscarves and ethnic registration.
There are also concerns in the CDA camp about Wilders’ forthcoming trial for inciting hatred, due to begin in October.
Lubbers, a three-times prime minister for the CDA, said on Friday that a coalition between the CDA and PVV could prove ‘a bridge too far’.
Minority
And he said, Wilders had also outlined arguments for a minority government, in which the PVV would support a VVD CDA cabinet.
In Denmark, the far-right Danish People’s Party gives its parliamentary backing to a centre-right minority government. Wilders has close ties with the Danish group.
Other party leaders, including Labour’s Job Cohen and Femke Halsema of GroenLinks, also said the right-wing variant should be looked at. ‘Otherwise it will remain hanging over our heads,’ Cohen was quoted as saying.
Talks on forming a cabinet between the VVD, Labour, GroenLinks and D66 fell apart following disagreements over government spending cuts.