Dutch coalition talks falter as party leader walks out

Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom, known as PVV (Peter Dejong/AP)

Weeks of negotiations to form a new ruling coalition in the Netherlands led by Geert Wilders appeared to end fruitlessly on Tuesday as one of the four party leaders involved in the talks walked out without an agreement.

“Incredibly disappointing. The Netherlands wants this cabinet and now Pieter Omtzigt is throwing in the towel while we were still in discussions until today. I don’t understand it at all,” Mr Wilders said on X, formerly Twitter.