Pushing an austerity agenda, two right-leaning Dutch parties agreed last Friday to have talks to form a minority government with support from an anti-Islam party five months after the last government collapsed. The minority government — a rarity in Dutch politics — would include the Liberal Party (VVD), which narrowly won June 9 elections after a broader government collapsed over the Afghan military mission, and the Christian Democrats (CDA).
The Freedom Party (PVV), which wants to stop Muslim immigration and ban the Koran in the Netherlands, has agreed to back the minority government in the Dutch parliament, leader Geert Wilders said on Dutch NOS Radio 1.
Note EU-Digest: "Wilders and his 23 fellow radical right-wing co-horts in the Freedom Party intend to support a Cabinet led by Liberal Mark Rutte under a preliminary deal reached July 30, giving it the smallest possible majority in the 150-seat lower house of parliament. Wilders agreed to an 18 billion-euro ($23 billion) budget cut, in exchange for measures to control immigration and crack down on crime.
The agreement to form a minority coalition, the first since World War II, ends almost seven weeks of deadlock. Yet some Liberals and Christian Democrats are concerned that Wilders won’t share ministerial responsibility and will thus retain a free hand to voice anti-Islamic sentiments that don’t mesh with their parties’ traditions of religious and racial tolerance".
If this coalition comes about, Geert Wilders will basically hold the Dutch Government at ransom without any risk to his own party. It must be seen as a most undesirable situation for the stability of the Netherlands political establishment and could have far reaching consequences".
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