A right-wing government is the only option, says VVD leader Rutte

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2010/08/a_rightwing_government_is_the.php

Monday 02 August 2010

Liberal VVD leader Mark Rutte is only willing to enter talks on forming a right-wing government with the CDA, he said in an interview with the Telegraaf on Monday.

'I am no longer available for any other variants,' Rutte said, effectively slamming the door on anything but a minority VVD CDA government with PVV support in parliament.

Rutte said it is incomprehensible that Labour leader Job Cohen is now crying 'crocodile tears' about the decision to hold formal talks on a right-wing government. 'He blocked the idea of a Labour, Liberal CDA cabinet and did not want the purple plus variant either,' Rutte was quoted as saying.

Parliament

Left-wing parties have demanded parliament be recalled from its summer break to debate the decision to look at a minority cabinet with the queen's negotiator Ruud Lubbers. That debate will take place this week.

They want Lubbers to come parliament and explain why he deviated from his commission and sanctioned talks on forming a minority government.

Lubbers was charged by queen Beatrix with investigating 'realistic options' for forming a majority cabinet but has now cleared the way for a minority cabinet made up of the CDA and VVD with PVV support.

CDA

Meanwhile there is growing unrest among senior CDA politicians about being involved in a cabinet supported by Geert Wilders.

Wilders is 'far too slippery' to support a minority cabinet made up of the CDA and VVD, Arie Oostlander, head of the CDA's academic institute, said in the Financieele Dagblad.

'The PVV is party which aims to hike up opposition rather than bridge tensions,' said former social affairs minister Bert de Vries in the Volkskrant. 'My party is the last one that should want to join in with that.'

In Saturday's NRC, a number of leading academics said Wilders' influence on a minority cabinet will be too great.

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