Dutch MPs returned temporarily from their summer recess today for a special debate with chief negotiator Ruud Lubbers about the progress of the coalition talks.
The public gallery was jammed solid as the party leaders on the left and the right passed judgment on the proposed coalition of the conservative VVD and the centre-right Christian Democrats which could become the first minority government in the Netherlands since World War II. They plan to rule with parliamentary support from Geert Wilders’ anti-Islamic Freedom Party.
Labour Party leader Job Cohen said Geert Wilders was the real winner. He was “the puppet master pulling the strings behind the scenes. With all the advantages and none of the responsibility.”
Green Left’s Femke Halsema called the minority coalition the “worst conceivable alternative” and accused Christian Democrat leader Maxime Verhagen of betraying his principles. She quoted his own words about Geert Wilders about whom he once said “by spreading fear and hatred he is involved only in destruction”.