Netherlands: Right-wing events to type authorities
Far-right Dutch firebrand Geert Wilders on Wednesday announced that he and the leaders of three right-wing parties have finally come to agreement over the formation of a coalition government.
Speaking in The Hague, Wilders, who will not serve as prime minister, said, “We have a negotiators’ agreement and we will return to the position of prime minister at a later moment.”
It is widely thought that such a candidate will be a technocrat from outside the political system.
Wilders had long desired the job but was seen as too risky to be a national leader, hence he has put his career ambitions to the side in exchange for advancing his agenda.
Government six months in the making
The staunchly anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim Wilders and his Party for Freedom (PVV) won a shock victory in the Netherlands‘ parliamentary elections six months ago — taking 37 of the body’s 150 seats — but had been unable to form a government.
The new coalition will include outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, Pieter Omtzigt’s conservative New Social Contract (NSC) and the populist Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB).
No further details on the agreement to govern Europe’s fifth-largest economy have been made public as yet.
js/lo (AFP, dpa)
