Prime minister Mark Rutte told MPs on Tuesday he hoped to win as broad as possible support for his government’s policies in an ‘open and constructive’ relationship with the opposition.

Rutte was making his first speech to parliament as prime minister in a two-day debate on the new coalition accord.
During the speech, Rutte stressed the need to get government finances back under control. ‘Our optimistic message to the people is that we will come out of the crisis stronger,’ the prime minister said. ‘That is the key that motivates this cabinet.’
Rutte reiterated that the new government plans to slash spending by €18bn and that the government apparatus will feel the pinch. ‘The Netherlands is suffering from management obesity and needs to go on a diet,’ he said.
Minority
Rutte is the first Liberal (VVD) MP in the Netherlands since World War II and heads a minority administration with the Christian Democrats. The anti-Islam PVV is acting as a silent partner on a number of issues, particularly on tightening up immigration.
The relationship with the PVV is a ‘special one’ which ‘implies that there is lots of room for alliances with other parties’, Rutte said.
But Labour leader Job Cohen told Rutte he should not assume that his party would support the government, because of Labour’s opposition to the alliance with Geert Wilders’ PVV.
‘We will not be used to plaster over the cracks in the coalition,’ Cohen said during the debate. The PVV is calling the shots in the new cabinet, the Labour leader said. ‘Wilders’ will is law.’
Concessions
Alexander Pechtold, leader of the Liberal democratic party D66, said he will take a critically-constructive line. ‘I have made plain my moral objections to [the cabinet’s] view of society. But we have to trade. I am going to look for room for my own plans every day this cabinet exists.’
Other opposition party leaders criticised Rutte’s speech for being cold and without vision. ‘It is a hard and impersonal tale,’ Socialist party leader Emile Roemer said.
Passports
Geert Wilders said after Rutte’s speech that he would not submit a motion of no confidence in the new government around the dual nationality affair.
Rutte said last week he did not see any problems with junior health minister Marlies Veldhuijzen van Zanten holding Dutch and Swedish nationality.
The debate will continue on Wednesday.
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