by Clifford F. Thies

The second attempt to form a majority coalition, following this year’s parliamentary election in the Netherlands, has failed. The market-liberal Dutch People’s Party could not reach an agreement with three left-of-center parties – the center-left Labor Party, the progessive-left Democrats, and the Greens – on spending cuts. This followed a failure to form a coalition of three center-right and right-wing parties – the Peoples Party, the center-right Christian Democrats and the populist-right Freedom Party of Geert Wilders. The sticking point in that set-up was the more over-the-top planks of the Freedom Party’s manifesto concerning Islam and immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Muslim world. It appeared that the Christian Democrats, still smarting from their dramatic fall-off in the popular vote, queered the deal by demanding that the Freedom Party renounce its manifesto prior to and as a condition for negotiations. Mark Rutte, leader of the People’s Party, has reiterated his preference for a coalition of the right.