The two Liberal parties VVD and D66 and the left-wing greens GroenLinks are prepared to reform the Dutch economy and that makes them potential coalition partners, prime minister and CDA leader Jan Peter Balkenende said on Monday evening.

‘We are talking about parties which are prepared to reform. To make the Netherlands stronger and help it through this difficult period,’ Balkenende told Nos tv.
Number five on the party’s candidate list, Marja van Bijsterveldt made a similar call earlier on Monday.
The Volkskrant says the move is meant to allay fears that the CDA might join up with the VVD and Geert Wilders’ PVV to form a right-wing coalition. At the weekend Wilders said he was ready to rule with the CDA and VVD.
While not ruling out such a coalition, VVD leader Mark Rutte did describe the PVV as left wing in terms of its economic policies.
The number of parties which have expressed a coalition preference is now rising. GroenLinks has called for the most progressive coalition possible. Party leader Femke Halsema said a coalition with the CDA and VVD was ‘extremely unlikely’.
And D66 leader Alexander Pechtold wants to see an alliance with the VVD and Labour.