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Amsterdam. A close adviser to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands said on Wednesday he would talk to party leaders to assess if a planned right-leaning cabinet would be a stable government, or if an alternative would work better. 

The announcement by Herman Tjeenk Willink, vice-president of the Council of State, the country’s highest constitutional body and chaired by the queen, was seen as a possible way of breaking a three-month stalemate in efforts to form a government. 

The Netherlands has been without a permanent cabinet since Feb. 20, when the government collapsed in a dispute over whether to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Elections were in June.

“Two times now there has been a report to the queen from [an official chairing government talks] that said such a [right-leaning] government was not possible. We have to make sure it will not fail a third time,” Tjeenk Willink said. 

He said he would talk to the parliamentary leaders of all parties on Wednesday and Thursday to see if there was majority support for a cabinet that could be a stable government and would have a “fruitful” cooperation with parliament. 

On Friday, talks broke down to create a minority government of the Liberal VVD and Christian-Democrat CDA with support from the anti-Islam, anti-immigrant Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders, because Wilders had lost confidence in the CDA. 

But on Monday, leading CDA dissident Ab Klink resigned from parliament after he failed to rally sufficient support in his party to stay clear of the PVV and its outspoken views on Muslims, the Koran and immigrants. 

The following day, the three parties said they wanted to continue their talks, just as parliament discussed the official report of the failed discussions.  


Reuters