Global General

New Dutch minority government formed

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-29 08:38

THE HAGUE - After 111 days of hard talks, the new Dutch government appears finally on horizon. The negotiators of three Dutch parties VVD, PVV and CDA reached an agreement Tuesday night on the proposed coalition.

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Party leader Mark Rutte of VVD, the winner of the Dutch general election in June, told media after hours of deliberation that he has reached an agreement with Geert Wilders, party leader of the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) and Maxime Verhagen, leader of Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) on a minority government.

"We are delighted that we have come so far," said the 43-year- old Rutte.

Earlier Tuesday evening, Rutte said the new cabinet will be named Rutte-Verhagen, which means the leader of VVD will be first time the Dutch prime minister since this party was founded in 1948.

According to local media, there are actually two agreements, the first is a coalition agreement between the conservative VVD and Christian Democrats (CDA). A second agreement on parliamentary support by the Freedom Party has also been finalized.  

PVV thus won't take any cabinet seats but will support the minority VVD-CDA government for a majority in the Lower House.

"It's a historic moment," said Wilders, "who would have thought that the Freedom Party would have enormous influence in government a couple of years ago."

All the three negotiators did not elaborate on further substantive details of this agreement, which will be submitted Wednesday to the three parties. The negotiators will report back to coalition broker Ivo Opstelten on Thursday, and then details of these agreements will be released.

While VVD and PVV do not require a fiat from party members, CDA will hold a special congress on Saturday focusing on the deal.

"I expect that we can discuss the agreement in the fraction successfully," Verhagen said.