Party leaders will visit queen Beatrix on Friday to discuss their thoughts on the best way forward for the Netherlands following Wednesday’s general election.
The queen has a key role in appointing a negotiator (informateur) to begin putting a new coalition government together.
Victorious VVD leader Mark Rutte is keeping his cards close to his chest, the Volkskrant reports on Friday. Commentators are all agreed that Rutte, who took 31 seats in Wednesday’s election, just one more than Job Cohen’s Labour, has a difficult job ahead of him.
Although an alliance with the anti-Islam PVV would seem a likely option, the party is to the left on the economy.
Party leader Geert Wilders has already made concessions on the state pension age, but he still opposes cuts in unemployment benefit and redundancy pay and is against higher health insurance fees and a further liberalisation of healthcare.
Employers
The Financieele Dagblad reports that employers do not want the PVV to become part of government because of the instability that is likely to bring.
Officials from all the main employers organisations said they were opposed to the PVV taking part in government, as is the financial sector.
VNO-NCW chairman Bernard Wientjes repeated earlier claims that a cabinet including the PVV – which wants the Koran banned and whose leader is facing charges of racial and religious discrimination – would not be good for the Netherlands reputation abroad.
