VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz has told party members at their annual conference in Den Bosch that she had made mistakes but would not give up the fight, as the right-wing liberals head into the election campaign.

The VVD is on target to win just 15 seats in the October general election, and support for Yesilgöz, who took over the leadership from Mark Rutte, has slumped following her social media spat with popular singer Douwe Bob in the summer.

“I make mistakes and I get up again,” Yesilgöz said, adding that she had learned from her errors. “My motivations turned into frustration, and that is not good.”

Yesilgöz also repeated her objections to forming a coalition with the Christian Democrats, D66 liberals and the left-wing GroenLinks-PvdA alliance – currently seen as the only option for a four-party coalition.

“We are not going to be the small party in such a coalition trying to pull things to the right,” she said. A “left cabinet” would invest less and would not see migration as a problem, she said, “and that means lots of things in this country will break down.”

Yesilgöz, who has ruled out working with the far right PVV again, said she would like to join a “stable, centre-right” coalition with the far-right JA21, the pro-countryside BBB, the CDA and D66.

Meanwhile, at the JA21 congress in Utrecht, leader and current sole MP Joost Eerdmans said his party was ready for government. Polls suggest JA21 could win seven to 11 seats, taking votes from both the far-right PVV and from the VVD.

Eerdmans called for a “decisive centre-right coalition” and addressed PVV chief Geert Wilders and CDA leader Henri Bontenbal directly, urging them to state their intentions. He warned that he would not support any coalition involving GroenLinks-PvdA.

Wilders, who is currently tipped to win most seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, has said he could support a minority cabinet. But is that, asked Eerdmans in his speech to members, “the answer to the mess and the chaos that has been left behind?”

The Netherlands currently has a rump administration made up of the BBB and VVD after the PVV and then new party NSC pulled out. The general election will be held on October 29.