Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende believes Labour Party leader Wouter Bos broke the unity of the cabinet over the question of Uruzgan and that this was the major cause of the country’s current political crisis.
Speaking on the television programme Buitenhof on Sunday, Mr Balkenende offered his view of the cabinet’s fall. He said that, given the Labour Party’s position, it had been inevitable. He added that in such a situation the continued existence of a cabinet was a less important goal than the preservation of credibility.
He said it had been agreed in the cabinet that various options for an extended Dutch presence in the Afghan province were to be considered. But when the Labour Party openly distanced itself from such a course, Mr Balkenende said, the cabinet was doomed.
He denied that Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen had threatened to resign over the Uruzgan question.
