Right wing party leaders meet on Friday afternoon

Friday 03 September 2010

The leaders of the three parties involved in talks on forming a new right-wing cabinet met the queen's official negotiator Ivo Opstelten on Friday afternoon.

It was not immediately clear if concrete talks on policy were on the agenda or whether the leaders were continuing to assess the upheaval within the Christian Democrats this week.

PVV leader Geert Wilders and the VVD Liberals' Mark Rutte have been discussing events with their MPs after sharp divisions emerged within the CDA about whether or not to form an alliance with Wilders' anti-Islam party.

Gamble

Some CDA politicians are concerned the party crisis has played into the hands of Wilders.
'Wilders now has to decide whether or not to pull the plug and gamble on winning more seats in the next election or whether to exercise influence on the new cabinet,' one CDA MP told Trouw.

Meanwhile, another promiment VVD member has come out against an alliance with the anti-Islam party. Former junior minister and MEP Gijs de Vries says in the Volkskrant the price the party is paying to have its first prime minister is too high.

The VVD emerged as the biggest party after the June 9 election.

'Of course one and a half million people voted for the PVV. But eight million people did not. If the parties representing those eight million are not in a position to form a cabinet without Wilders it is a sign of weakness,' De Vries told the paper.

See also: A cabinet formation dominated by fear

© DutchNews.nl

Comments have been closed for this article.