The 2010 election made the Liberal Party(VVD) of Mark Rutte the largest in parliament with 31 seats.  A gain of 9, which is topped by Freedom Party(PVV) leader Geert Wilders, who gained whopping 15 seats. The PVV is now the third largest party with 24 seats, after the VVD and the Social-Democrats(PvdA) of Job Cohen, 30 seats, a loss of three.

Election Billboard Westerpark

Spectaculair is also the loss of governing prime-minister Balkenende and his Christian Democrats (CDA). They lost 20 seats. In reaction to this news Balkenende resigned as party leader. He will stay on has care- taker prime- minister until the new government is formed.

This can take a while. A lot of parties excluded each other during the campaign and other parties are very unlikely to be able to form a stable government.

Mark Rutte seems to be in a comfortable position, but he is actually not. As the front man of the largest party, he is to lead the coalition talks. The first question is; Who is he going to talk to?

The PVV of Wilders is the most likely first candidate, but he needs to find other parties to form a stable government. Ideologically, the Christian Democrats are the closest to the VVD and PVV, but prominent members, among former prime- ministers, announced that they would quite the party if the new leader Maxime Verhagen, the present minister of foreign affairs, is to cling to such a centre right coalition.

Also, prominent VVD members warned Rutte not to enter Wilders in a coalition. They argue a coalition of the three (former) big parties VVD, CDA and PvdA is the only stable solution for a country that has to implement austerity measures.

The mood among the vested parties is at the moment: How is Rutte moving Wilders elegantly along the side lines?

To be continued…

Daan Diederiks