AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Dutch centrist party NSC has stepped away from talks on forming a majority government, Dutch newspaper AD reported on Tuesday, complicating the task for far-right politician Geert Wilders to assemble a working coalition.
NSC, an upstart party, took 20 seats in the Nov. 22 election that was won by Wilders’ nationalist Freedom Party (PVV) and was seen as an essential partner to form a coalition that would have a majority in the Netherlands’ 150-seat lower legislative body.
Wilders, who won a quarter of the vote in the election, has been negotiating with the NSC, the centre-right VVD of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the farmers’ protest party BBB since late November, without giving any sign that a deal was close.
In a letter to his fellow party members that was quoted by AD, NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt said he considered the talks to be over, as the government’s finances made it impossible to be part of promises he said the coalition wouldn’t be able to keep.
“Incredibly disappointing,” Wilders said in a statement. “The country wants this coalition … I don’t understand it at all.”
Ronald Plasterk, a former Labor Party minister and the intermediary leading the talks, had already flagged finances as a key stumbling block, after economic experts had warned the new coalition would have to find around 17 billion euros ($18.3 billion) in structural spending cuts.
This move complicated already difficult talks even more, as Wilders made it clear this was not part of his agenda, by tweeting his preference for a right-wing government “with lower taxes and without painful, large spending cuts”.
Plasterk is due to inform the Dutch parliament on the state of government formation talks next week.
Omtzigt said in his letter that he would be willing to support a minority government. If no combination of parties can agree to form a coalition, new elections are an option of last resort.
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(Reporting by Bart Meijer and Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Chris Reese and Paul Simao)
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