Dutch attempt to form new coalition

Dutch politicians were today trying to sort out who will form the next government, after voters backed parties on both the right and the left with very different ideas on budget cuts and Muslim immigration.

After a race between the Labour party and the pro-business VVD Party, the VVD claimed “apparent” victory and plans to take the lead in what may be weeks or even months of negotiations over a new governing coalition.

“I would like to see a new Cabinet put together as soon as possible because of the seriousness of the economic crisis,” VVD leader and would-be prime minister Mark Rutte said.

“It’s a complicated result, but on the other hand the sovereign voter has spoken, and it’s up to politicians to put together a good Cabinet with it.”

With 99.5% of votes counted, the VVD led Labour 31 seats to 30 in the 150-seat parliament.

Under the Dutch constitution, advisers will now visit Queen Beatrix to discuss the results. Party leaders will do the same tomorrow to inform her of their coalition preferences before she names someone to oversee preliminary negotiations.

Voters also gave a major boost to the anti-Islam Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, which scored its best-ever finish with 24 seats, up from nine. However the Freedom Party siphoned most of its gains from another party on the right: Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s Christian Democrats suffered a humiliating defeat, dropping from 41 to 21 seats.

Mr Balkenende, who has led the government for eight years, said he is leaving politics. He will remain the caretaker premier.

Labour Party leader Job Cohen, the former mayor of Amsterdam who was the other main candidate to become prime minister, congratulated Mr Rutte with his win “conditionally.”

The most likely outcome appears to be a centrist coalition with VVD and Labour combining with two smaller parties on the left, the Green-Left and Democrats-66, who both won 10 seats.

Yet neither the top two parties will be able to form a government without major compromises on ideology.

The VVD has pledged to slash the deficit by cutting government spending and welfare programmes while Labour has criticised that as harmful to the poor.

Labour wants to preserve government social programs, raise taxes on the wealthy and make it easier for immigrants to integrate rather than punishing those that fail.

Although not as outspoken against Muslims as Mr Wilders, Mr Rutte has also argued that immigrants who cannot contribute to the Dutch economy should not be allowed to enter, and he would ban them from receiving welfare for 10 years after arrival.

In theory, Mr Wilders and his Freedom Party could join the VVD and others in a right-wing Cabinet – but his polarising stances have made him unsavoury to other parties. He is also under hate speech prosecution for comparing Islam to Nazism and calling for a ban on the Koran.

He said he was willing to compromise in order to enter the Cabinet.

Other parties may try “to shove us aside, but we must be taken seriously,” he said.