Christian Democrat and Labour politicians began blaming each other for the collapse of the government with a string of media appearances at the weekend.

Labour pulled out of the three-party coalition government in the early hours of Saturday morning following an acrimonious dispute over extending the Dutch mission in Afghanistan.
On Sunday, prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende told tv show Buitenhof it was Labour leader and deputy prime minister Wouter Bos who was to blame because he had made public the differences within the cabinet over the Afghanistan mission.
The cabinet collapsed because Labour did not have the will to solve [those differences], he said
Obama
During the interview, the prime minister accused Labour of damaging the Netherlands reputation abroad. It was ‘not responsible’ of the party to say it was not prepared to discuss Nato’s formal request to the Netherlands to stay in Afghanistan for another year, he said.
‘People do not understand what we are doing,’ Balkenende said, pointing out that the Netherlands is the only country to pull out.
US president Barack Obama is currently trying to get European countries to commit more troops to Afghanistan. He has made the war a central part of his foreign policy and has said he will send thousands more American soldiers.
‘If the Dutch go… that could open the floodgates for other Europeans to say, ‘The Dutch are going, we can go, too’,’ Julian Lindley-French, professor of defense strategy at the Netherlands Defence Academy in Breda told the New York Times.
Reputation
But aid minister Bert Koenders told the Radio 1 news later that the Netherlands’ reputation had been damaged because the Afghanistan issue remained on the table so long when everyone knew the August withdrawal date was a certainty.
Labour repeatedly made its opposition to staying longer clear and there is no parliamentary majority in favour of an extended mission either.
Nevertheless, Nato formally requested the Netherlands stay on to train local troops past the August 2010 deadline in a letter earlier this month.
Formal request
During his tv interview, Balkenende said Verhagen had asked Nato to make the formal request on the suggestion of Labour aid minister Koenders.
Koenders said a request from Nato was a precondition for Labour taking part in talks on the mission, Balkenende said. ‘Then Verhagen said: I can arrange that,’ Balkenende told the tv show. ‘On February 4, the letter arrived.’
Bos said earlier this month the request to Nato had not been made in his name and that he was not involved with the Nato talks.
ChristenUnie
André Rouvoet, leader of the junior coalition partner ChristenUnie, said in a statement on Saturday the collapse of the cabinet was ‘irresponsible and unnecessary’. ‘Bos deliberately broke up cabinet unity,’ he said.
Liberal leader Mark Rutte accused the Labour party of using the issue as a vote winner in the March 3 local elections.
He also said Balkenende had failed to show proper leadership by allowing Bos and Verhagen to fight so openly.
For the New York Times report, click here

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