There are too many small political parties in the Netherlands and the country threatens to become ungovernable, the chairman of the right-wing VVD Liberals said on Tuesday.

In an interview with the AD, Henry Keizer said he wanted to see the number of votes a party needs to win a seat in parliament increased. Unlike countries such as Belgium and Germany, the Netherlands does not have a formal threshold. A party qualifies for one seat if it wins at least 0.67% of the vote.

‘If we are not careful, you will need six or seven parties to form a government,’ he told the paper.

Political parties said the timing of the interview was noteworthy because the cabinet will rely on the support of small parties to push its policies through the upper house or senate.

The 12 provincial councils are voting for the 75 members of the upper house of parliament on Tuesday.

Gert-Jan Seegers of Christian party ChristenUnie described the VVD suggestion as the ‘arrogance of power’. ChristenUnie has five seats in the lower house and two in the senate.