Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam party PVV has called on the Christian Democrats to immediately join talks between his party and the Liberals VVD on forming a new government.

The PVV increased its parliamentary seats from nine to 24 in last week's general election and hopes to form a coalition with the VVD and CDA.

'It is important that the CDA joins in and builds trust, rather than keep a watchful eye from the sidelines,' Wilders was quoted as saying by news agency ANP.

There is 'not much point' in just talking to the VVD without the CDA, Wilders said.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – Wilders urges CDA to join coalition talks immediately.

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

Populist leader of Freedom party insists on government role after election breakthrough

The Netherlands’ Muslim-baiting maverick Geert Wilders has staked a strong claim to a seat in a new Dutch cabinet after almost tripling his party's parliamentary presence in an election breakthrough.

Wilders, the leader of the Freedom party, increased its seats from nine to 24 in the 150-seat second chamber in The Hague, seven fewer than the winning rightwing liberals of the VVD and six seats behind the Dutch Labour party.

“We want to be part of the new government. Nobody can bypass the PVV [Freedom party] any more,” declared the tall populist with the shock of white hair, after pushing the Netherlands' traditionally ruling Christian democrats into a humiliating fourth place in the general election.

Wilders appeared serious about insisting on a government role, promptly dropping campaign insistence on keeping the retirement age at 65 in an attempt to narrow differences with the liberals, who have pledged to raise it to 67 as well as big spending and welfare cuts.

The election, called a year early after the centrist coalition collapsed in February over Afghanistan, revealed a political spectrum fragmented as seldom before and thoroughly polarised, making it difficult to construct a majority.

“A complicated puzzle,” said Mark Rutte, the leader of the VVD liberals, who won the election for the first time in the modern era. Rutte will be prime minister and has said he wants a government formed by next month. That looks unlikely and it is not at all clear who he will govern with.

Read more >> | Geert Wilders on course for Dutch cabinet seat | World news | The Guardian.

Leiden University professor Uri Rosenthal, the man appointed by queen Beatrix to begin putting together a new coalition government for the Netherlands, is to look at an alliance between the right-wing Liberals and anti-Islam PVV as his first priority.

Beatrix has reported urged Rosenthal not to take too long given 'the difficult situation the country is in'.

If it becomes clear the VVD and PVV can work together, he will then talk to the Christian Democrats about their support for a right-wing coalition. Such a coalition would have just 76 out of 150 seats in parliament.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – Work starts on forming right-wing coalition.

Mark Rutte’s face was absent during the election campaign, but on Thursday he appeared to have won the election, making his right-wing liberal party the biggest and himself the likely prime minister.

Despite long seeming unable to lead even his own party, Mark Rutte now looks set to lead the Netherlands through the economic storm as its next prime minister. Rutte, who is 43 years old, brought his right-wing liberal VVD party a significant victory in Wednesday's parliamentary election. It is now up to him to take the lead in the, difficult, process of forming a coalition.

On Thursday morning, Mark Rutte gave an acceptance speech to his followers who had stayed up all night. It wasn't until the early hours that he dared claim the victory in the election that gave his party 31 of 150 seats in parliament. The VVD is now the Netherlands’ biggest party and Rutte seems its undisputed leader. This must be quite a change for the man who was long challenged within his own ranks.

Read more >> | nrc.nl – International – Election 2010 – Mark Rutte emerges as new Dutch leader.

ECB president calls for governments to agree ambitious reforms.

Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), today (10 June) called on governments to agree ambitious reforms to strengthen economic governance in the EU.

Trichet said that it was “extremely important” for the EU to make a “quantum leap” in its economic governance as a response to the eurozone debt crisis. He said this applied “for Europe as whole, but particularly for the euro area”.

He said that he wanted Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, to secure progress in this area. Van Rompuy is chairing a ministerial taskforce on economic governance that is supposed to agree reforms by October.

“We have to improve formidably the [economic] governance of the euro area members,” he added.

Read more >> | Trichet wants ‘quantum leap’ in economic governance  |  Policies  |  Business  |  Financial services | European Voice.

Party leaders continued their war of words on Friday, with just four days of campaigning to go before the general election on June 9. In particular the PVV came under fire.

PVV leader Geert Wilders said in an interview with the Telegraaf that Labour party leader Job Cohen had endangered Wilders' personal safety by saying he was a danger to the state.

Cohen said earlier the rule of law was not in safe hands with Wilders and his performance could endanger society.

'It might be going too far to say he was encouraging it but…. he did say it,' Wilders said in the interview. 'And there are always nutcases out there who think 'we need to be rid of him',' Wilders said.

Later Wilders told news agency ANP the Labour party could itself be endangering the rule of law because it had allowed 30,000 failed asylum seekers to stay in the country after all.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – Election campaign enters final stages, PVV under fire.

What makes a liberal? The definition differs widely on the two opposite sides of the Atlantic, but even within the tiny Netherlands, political parties bicker over who is really entitled to use the term.

“The question isn't so much which party is, strictly speaking, the most liberal. What matters is which party can best safeguard our free democratic society,” wrote Mark Rutte, the leader of the VVD party, in his Op-Ed in NRC Handelsblad on Monday. The paper invited Rutte, whose party is usually referred to as right-wing liberal, and Alexander Pechtold, the leader of D66, which is usually described as left-wing liberal, to write arguments in defence of their versions of liberalism. But although Rutte believes more is at stake than who can claim the definition, 'liberal' and 'liberal values' are popping up regularly in the Dutch political discourse these days. With parliamentary elections just one week away, these two liberals clash on what their ideology stands for and what it should mean for the Netherlands, regarding issues ranging from austerity measures to environmental policies and whether these should be dealt with by a big or small government.

Read more >> | nrc.nl – International – Election 2010 – Will the real liberal please stand up.

Europe is rarely mentioned in the ongoing Dutch election campaign. Most parties seem to agree the European Union is necessary, even if they are loath to say so openly.

Few people might have recognised him, but on Tuesday, Mark Rutte, leader of the right-wing liberal VVD party, visited the European parliament in Brussels. He had an unpleasant message for European bureaucrats, not only did he announce that he would “clean house” in the Netherlands, but in Europe as well. “I can't wait to get started,” said Rutte, whose party, current polls predict looks to become the biggest in the Netherlands in the coming election.

Read more >> | nrc.nl – International – In Dutch election, Europe is not an issue.

As the Dutch election campaign centres on the economy, the populist Islam-basher Geert Wilders has lost momentum.

Geert Wilders makes clear choices about which media he talks to. He refuses to be interviewed by NRC Handelsblad, for example, and to give reasons for his refusal. Interviews with media that are, apparently, unacceptable to him don’t seem to fit into his campaign strategy. He also denied daily Trouw an interview and generally avoids public television, though he participates in their prime ministerial debates in the run-up to the June 9 election.

Read more >> | nrc.nl – International – Election 2010 – Anti-immigration Wilders runs a muted campaign.

The Dutch labour party leader, Job Cohen, is losing ground. But his attitude in the election campaign is exemplary for left-wing politicians. They prefer not to play along with this game called politics.

One month ago, the Dutch labour party was all self-confidence and optimism. Job Cohen, the long-time mayor of Amsterdam, had just been appointed the new party leader and presented to the people as the modest and reasonable alternative to the crazy politics in The Hague. Journalists called the leadership change a “stroke of genius”, and the polls reflected this. Late last year, the labour party had been all but written off, but now it suddenly scented victory again. A ‘Yes We Cohen’ fan club, was launched on Facebook immediately.

Read more >> | nrc.nl – International – All about soundbites: a philosophical look at the failure of the left.

While a post-election coalition with Geert Wilders anti-Islam PVV party could not be ruled out, the PVV is a left-wing party in terms of the economy, Liberal leader Mark Rutte said at the weekend.

Speaking after Wilders said he was ready to join a coalition with the VVD Liberals and CDA after the June 9 vote, Rutte said: The PVV has a left-wing agenda, just like the Socialists.The PVV is opposed to changes to mortgage tax relief, like the VVD, but has said an increase in the state pension age is taboo. The VVD and CDA both back a gradual rise from 65 to 67.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – PVV ready to rule with CDA, VVD: Rutte doubts PVV economic policy.

While slouching against a wall in a former cigarette factory in the industrial outskirts of The Hague one day last month, I was visited with the sudden realization that over the formative centuries of European history the two words that most succinctly signaled “other,” “foreign” or “enemy” were these: “Jew” and “Turk.”

Crudely unpacking them, “Turk” meant Muslim, Arab, infidel, the threat from without; a Jew was the enemy within, someone who, even if born and raised in your hometown, was part of another political as well as religious entity; the Jews of a city were referred to not as a community but as “the Jewish nation.” “Jew” and “Turk” were in fact constructs Europeans used to help define their own identity: that which we are not.

Read more >> | European Muslims’ Jewish Friend, Job Cohen – NYTimes.com.

A new purple coalition – a combination of the two Liberal parties and Labour – is “extremely unlikely” , VVD leader Mark Rutte said during Sunday’s televised election debate.

A purple cabinet – so called because of the mix of party colours – ran the Netherlands from 1994 to 2002 and is seen by many as a popular option this time round.

But Rutte told the debate the difference in policies between the VVD and Labour is 'extremely large'.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – ‘Purple coalition very unlikely’ says Liberal leader Rutte.

The Netherlands will go to the polls to choose a new parliament on June 9. But although, officially, Dutch voters will only be electing the 150 members of de Tweede Kamer, the real race will be fought out between the contenders for the highest Dutch office, that of prime minister.

Looking at the current polls, it seems to have become a showdown between four men: incumbent Jan Peter Balkenende, Labour challenger Job Cohen, right-wing liberal Mark Rutte and enfant terrible Geert Wilders. Their neck-and-neck race illustrates the fragmented political landscape of the Netherlands, where traditional parties no longer boast a loyal following.

Read more >> | nrc.nl – International – Election 2010 – Who will be the next Dutch prime minister?.

Mark Rutte has come out on top of the first live television debate between Dutch political leaders. A majority of viewers said he won the TV contest between the leaders of the four largest parties.

Mr Rutte’s conservative VVD party is building on a solid lead in the opinion polls. Just two and a half weeks from election day, he is the clear favourite to be in the position of forming a coalition after the 9 June election.

The topic dominating the campaign is the economy. Voters are worried. The crisis surrounding the euro has now overshadowed recovery from the recession brought on by the financial crisis two years ago.

Read more >> | Candidates clash in first TV election debate | Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

Sex scandals are rare in Dutch politics, but now an affair with an aide has floored deputy minister and prominent Christian democrat Jack de Vries, just weeks before the general election.

Jack de Vries was long one of the most influential members of the CDA, the Dutch conservative Christian democratic party. The party's success in the last three national elections could partly be attributed to him, the spin doctor behind prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende. But with a new election just three weeks away, his political career now seems over. De Vries, who became the deputy defence minister in 2007, stepped down after an extramarital affair he had with a woman who worked for him set off a publicity storm. In the history of Dutch, it is rare for a private matter like this to decide someone's political fate.

Read more >> | nrc.nl – International – Election 2010 – Extramarital affair ends Dutch spin doctor’s political career.

Junior defence minister Jack de Vries resigned on Friday afternoon following revelations he is having an affair with a defence ministry aide.

De Vries, an important Christian Democrat spin doctor, is also withdrawing from the CDA's list of potential MPs for the June 9 general election.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – Junior defence minister De Vries resigns over affair.

D66 leader Alexander Pechtold backs the idea of a pre-election pact between a number of parties who pledge to work together and form a coalition in the run up to the June 9 election.

He made the suggestion in an interview with Trouw on Saturday. The concept of a pre-election pact dates back to the 1970s when three left-of-centre parties set up a shadow cabinet before the election and went on to form the next government, the paper says.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – D66 leader hints at pre-election coalition pact, polls go purple.

The new Labour leader (PvdA) Job Cohen keeps the option open to support a police training mission to Uruzgan in Afghanistan. Cohen is also ready to talk about the protection force to accompany the police mission.

Cohen made these remarks in a Sunday evening televised interview with the KRO.

It is again a curious turn of events in the debate around the Dutch role in Afghanistan. Barely two months ago the CDA/ PvdA cabinet fell over an extended military mission in Uruzgan in line with Nato proposals.

A compromise, including a police training mission, was within crasp, but former party leader Wouter Bos refused further talks. The end of of Cabinet Balkenende IV was the result.

Foreign minister Verhagen expressed astonishment on this PvdA move. “If this is the present PvdA position, I do not understand why the PvdA walked out of the cabinet, ” said Verhagen to Het Parool.

By Daan Diederiks

See also >> | Dutchnews.nl | Labour open for Afghanistan police training mission: Cohen

See also >> | NRC- Handelsblad | PvdA sluit politiemissie Afghanistan niet uit

See also >> | Het Parool | Verhagen begrijpt niets meer van PvdA

See also >> | Vrij Nederland | Ko Colijn | Perverse redenering om de snor te drukken

See also >> | Cartoon courtesy | Siegfried Woldhek

Amsterdam city council has appointed a new local government. Following lengthy negotiations after the March local elections, the Dutch capital will for the next four years be governed by a coalition of Labour, conservative VVD and the Green Left party.

The big winner of the local elections, the progressive liberal D66 party, dropped out of the coalition negotiations after a row with Labour over the way an interim mayor was appointed. Labour mayor Job Cohen stepped down in order to lead the national Labour party, and Labour alderman Lodewijk Asscher was appointed as caretaker mayor. D66 accused Labour of turning Amsterdam into a Labour republic, and relations between the two parties could not be mended.

Read more >> | Amsterdam gets left-dominated government | Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

The top three parties in the polls – Labour (PvdA), the Christian Democrats (CDA) and Liberals (VVD) – kicked off their election campaigns at the weekend with parties conferences and rousing speeches by their leaders.

And with the economy emerging as the main issue in the campaign, all three party leaders spoke about the need to make cuts.

Government experts say spending must be reduced by €29bn to get the budget deficit back under control.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – Election campaigns kick off with the big three party conferences.

A Conservative government would “constructively engage” with the EU but introduce a “referendum lock” on all future transfers of power from London to Brussels, while Labour would seek to preserve Britain’s role as a “leading player in Europe,” reveal the parties’ manifestos, launched this week ahead of a general election due on 6 May.

Read more >> | Tories, Labour offer contrasting views on Europe | EurActiv.

The Dutch liberal party, the VVD, wants the Netherlands to cut its contribution to the EU budget by almost half in a move popular with voters.

The policy was unveiled in the party’s draft election manifesto out on Friday (9 April), with the Netherlands due to go to the urns on 9 June.

The VVD envisages an overall reduction of €20 billion in government spending over the next four years in reaction to the economic crisis. Part of the saving would come from paying €2 billion a year less into the EU coffers, compared to the country's €5.3 billion a year contribution today.

A survey at the weekend by pollsters Maurice de Hond found that 63 percent of Dutch people support the idea.

Read more >> | EUobserver / Dutch parties plan to cut EU budget contribution.

Savings totalling €20m over the next five years, a new top income tax tariff of 60% and a reduction in mortagage tax relief are at the heart of the Labour party´s manifesto for the June 9 general election.

The party wants to gradually reduce the tax break on mortgages until it only applies to 30% of the average house price. The current system is unfair because the rich are effectively subsidised by people on low and middle incomes, campaign leader Job Cohen said at the manifesto´s presentation.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – Labour manifesto calls for lower mortgage tax relief, new top tax.

Political parties in the Netherlands spend a pittance on their campaigns compared to those in other countries. Corporate donations are “not done”.

Michael Bloomberg spent around 70 million US dollars (52 million euros) when he wanted to be re-elected as mayor of New York in 2005. His second term was considered a given but he still paid. ”about 100 dollars per vote,” said Kees Brants, a professor of political communication at Leiden University.

This gargantuan amount is a far cry from the modest budgets available to Dutch political parties in their campaigns for the June 9 national election. Altogether, Dutch parties have somewhere between 7 and 9 million euros to spend, not including the populist right PVV and TON parties.

Read more >> | nrc.nl – International – Dutch politicians campaign on a shoestring.

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Labour leader Wouter Bos has accused Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop of withholding critical information that could have prevented the fall of the cabinet in February over Labour's refusal to extend the military mission in Afghanistan.

Mr Bos made the accusation during a reconstruction, televised on Friday, of the fall of the fourth government of Christian Democrat Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkendende. Mr Bos describes Mr Van Middelkoop's decision to withhold the information as “irresponsible.”

Read more >> | Defence minister withheld Uruzgan compromise | Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

Apart from Spain, Greece and Portugal, most European countries are procrastinating over any decisions on cutbacks. Are the committees that advised on austerity measures in the Netherlands going to make a difference?

The plan was the laughing stock of the Netherlands last year. In September, the Dutch government set up 20 committees to look at austerity measures that could get the state's budget back in check. Critics said this showed politicians are afraid to make decisions, and that valuable time would be wasted. But six months later the committees have presented their suggestions, while politicians elsewhere in Europe are postponing any drastic interventions in the public finances.

Read more >> | nrc.nl – International – Europe – Dutch cutback proposals unique in Europe.

The current tax break on mortgages, which allows home owners to deduct all their mortgage interest payments from tax, remains untouched in the Christian Democrats election manifesto.

The tax break is said to cost the treasury some €11bn a year and is one of the most generous in Europe.

The CDA is now the third party to state the tax break is not under threat – the VVD Liberals and Geert Wilders' PVV said earlier their election manifestos will leave mortgage tax relief intact.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – CDA to leave mortgage tax relief untouched.

An increase in the state pension age to 67, spending cuts of €15bn over the next four years and limits to mortgage tax relief are among the main policy initiatives in the D66 election manifesto, party chairman Joris Backer told tv show Buitenhof on Sunday.

The Liberal democratic party wants to ditch the two-step pension increase plan worked out by the current cabinet and replace it with two year increase phased in over 12 years. The increase will generate €4bn a year for the treasury, Backer said.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – D66 call for pension age hike by 2024.

While Christian Democrats argue over the position of party leader Jan Peter Balkenende, more politicians are set to stand down at the next election.

Current prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende should make way for a new leader of the Christian Democrat (CDA) party. If he doesn’t, the CDA risks becoming the Netherlands’  third or fourth biggest party, according to CDA member of parliament Annie Schreijer-Pierik.

Read more >> | nrc.nl – International – Christian Democrat says Balkenende must go.

Job Cohen, mayor of Amsterdam, announced on Friday he hoped to be leading Labour in the next elections. What kind of leader is he?

When Job Cohen (62), then still deputy minister of justice, wanted to leave for Amsterdam in 2000, Labour’s leadership tried to block his appointment there. As minister of home affairs, fellow Labour member Klaas de Vries was responsible for filling the post, but the prime minister Wim Kok and Labour’s leader in parliament Ad Melkert asked him not to choose Cohen. Not because they considered him unfit for the job, quite the contrary. He would be too sorely missed in The Hague. “I said: ‘sorry, but as a minister I have to appoint the best possible mayor.’ That turned out to be Cohen,” De Vries recalled.

Read more >> | nrc.nl – International – New Labour leader Cohen: hard man, soft touch.

Former Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen is by far the people’s favourite choice for prime minister, according to two opinion polls carried out shortly after he announced his candidacy for Labour party leader.

Asked if they would prefer Cohen, current prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende or anti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders for the premiership, 52% of people in a poll for tv show EenVandaag picked the Amsterdam mayor.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – Cohen tops polls as people’s favourite.

With the comming of Job Cohen as the new leader of the Labour Party PvdA, the Dutch political landscape will be completely overhauled.

The present leader and former finance minister Wouter Bos decided after the collapse of his government and the loss in the local elections for the Labour movement to resign as party leader and candidate prime minister. His main motive was his desire to raise his young children. He doesn’t want to miss their education in their formative years.

In his press conference he pushed the present Mayor of Amsterdam as the best candidate as Labour leader and a candidate prime- minister who aims to unite the country.

This is a surprise move. Yesterday the Christian Democratic Crown prince Eurlings also decided to dedicate himself to his family. Eurlings was the CDA talent to replace present prime minister Jan-Peter Balkenende.  He is already in politics since his early twenties, and now at 36, he wants to start a family.

It is a sign of the times that ambitious men choose to step down in favour of their families.

This moves by Bos and the most likely apointment of Cohen as party leader will open the way to a stable Labour – Christian democratic coalition.

If Labour becomes the largest after the election of june 9, then Cohen will be prime minster, and a superbe character to forge a coalition of middle ground parties as the Christian- democrats and/ or the GreenLeft under Femke Halsema.

The election of june 9th will be the more a choice for a prime-minister. Cohen of Balkenende.

By Daan Diederiks – The Amsterdam Post

A new poll by Maurice de Hond puts the Labour party (PvdA) and CDA neck and neck on 24 seats, with Geert Wilders anti-Islam PVV still in first place on 27.

The internet panel poll gives Labour a nine-seat boost since it pulled out of the government two weeks ago.

The 24-seat total for the CDA is the lowest ever record for the party by De Hond, and is a two-seat drop on last week’s result.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – Labour, CDA, neck and neck in new poll.

Geert Wilders and his anti-Islam Freedom Party party did well in Dutch municipal elections on Wednesday. Still, despite the attention the populist party attracts, it still has a long way to go if it wants power on the national stage, say German commentators.

read more >> | Der Spiegel Online

Dutch anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders scored major gains in local elections on Wednesday, making him a serious challenger for power in the June national election, preliminary results showed.

In the first test of public opinion since the collapse of prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s coalition government last month, Wilders’s populist Party for Freedom (PVV) led in the city of Almere and was second in The Hague, the only two municipalities where Wilders chose to compete.

Read more >> | nrc.nl – International – Geert Wilders is major winner in Dutch polls.

See also >> | Anti-Islamists set for large gains in Dutch election – EurActiv

A ban on headscarves for city council workers and in all institutions and clubs which get local authority money will be the most important point in the PVV´s negotiations to join governing coalitions in Almere and the Hague, says party leader Geert Wilders.

Speaking to RTL news, Wilders said the ban would be central to talks to form new local authority executives in the only two cities where the party is contesting the March 3 local elections.

The ban will apply to ‘all council offices and all other institutions and clubs which get even one cent of council money,’ he said.

The PVV is tipped to emerge as the biggest party in Almere and second biggest in the Hague.

Read more >> | DutchNews.nl – Wilders goes for headscarf ban in the Hague.