Dutch parties aiming for rare minority coalition government

By Bart Meijer

Government formation talks in the Netherlands will be aimed at setting up a rare minority cabinet, the leaders of the three prospective coalition parties said on Friday.

Negotiations are set to continue between the centrist, pro-EU D66 party, which won the election last October, the conservative Christian Democrats and the right-wing VVD.

This coalition would hold 66 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, and would have to seek support from other parties for its policies.

"It was not an easy decision," said D66 leader Rob Jetten, who is poised to become the youngest-ever and first openly gay prime minister of the Netherlands.

Jetten, 38, said it would be hard work to get majorities in the polarised Dutch parliament, but not impossible.

"I am convinced that if we come with good proposals, other parties will be willing to talk," he told reporters.

"We have to invest heavily in the safety of the Netherlands. Other parties have also made promises on that front to their voters."

The prospective coalition would also lack a majority in the upper-house Senate, which can block legislation that has been passed in the lower house.

The Netherlands is usually led by majority coalitions, but the heavily fractured political landscape has made it increasingly difficult to assemble one.

After the October election, all major mainstream parties ruled out governing with anti-Muslim populist Geert Wilders after he brought down the last government, led by his PVV.

The VVD ruled out working with a left-wing Green/Labour pairing, the only combination of parties that would have had a solid majority.

D66, for its part, objected to including the Eurosceptic, conservative JA21, which could have brought up the prospective coalition's seat count to 75.