The Netherlands is in a serious situation, in terms of the economy and the political landscape, the man charged with putting together a new coalition government said on Monday.

Uri Rosenthal, a university professor and VVD senator, said he is going to work ‘as quickly and as carefully’ as he can to identify which parties can form a new coalition government.
Queen Beatrix has reportedly urged Rosenthal not to take too long given ‘the difficult situation the country is in’.
The last time a monarch used those words prior to a cabinet formation was in 1935, Rosenthal pointed out.
Parties
Alongside the economic situation, an added difficulty is the highly fragmented political situation, he said.
On Monday morning, Rosenthal had talks with Mark Rutte, leader of the VVD Liberal party, which took 31 seats in last week’s general election.
But the VVD won just 20.6% of the vote, and 10 parties will be represented in parliament.

Right
Rosenthal is first looking into the formation of a right-wing government based on an alliance between the VVD and Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam PVV which took 24 seats.
A comparison of the two parties election pledges ‘has made it clear there will be questions about all sorts of points’, he was quoted as saying in the Financieele Dagblad.
The PVV is strongly anti-immigrant but has a left-leaning economic agenda, whereas the VVD wants tighter immigration controls and economic reform.
VVD leader Rutte said after his meeting with Rosenthal a coalition with the PVV would be ‘complicated’ but ‘not impossible’.