One and a half months after Dutch Parliamentary elections on June 9, attempts to form an ABBW (Any Body But Wilders) coalition government have collapsed. In response, Queen Beatrix has appointed three-time former Prime Minister Rudd Lubbers (a Christian Democrat) "to oversee and co-ordinate talks to form a new government," according to a new report from the Amsterdam Bureau of Dow Jones Newswires.According to a report by Jurjen van de Pol over at Bloomberg.com, Mark Rutte, head of the VVD party (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy), has publicly stated his preference for a coalition that includes Geert Wilders and Wilders' PVV party (Party For Freedom). Rutte's VVD was the biggest vote getter in the June elections, with 31 seats in Parliament, while Wilders' PVV garnered 24 seats (third, coming in after Labor which now has 30 seats).
Immediately after the election, both Queen Beatrix and Mark Rutte had indicated a desire to see Wilders included in the next government, but that was torpedoed by the Christian Democrats who refused to even discuss the idea. Basically, the Christian Democrats were pissed off because Wilders' dramatic success, jumping from 9 seats to 24, was directly at the expense of the CD's who lost nearly half their seats.
That led to over a month of talks trying to form a "purple" coalition government that would have been headed up by Rutte's rightist VVD along with Labor, the Greens and the D66 party, the last being variously described as "center-left", "radical democratic", and "progressive liberal".)
The "purple" coalition effort appears to have died peacefully in its sleep earlier this week. At issue was -- surprise!! -- budget cutbacks.