VVD Will Not Join Coalition, But Could Support PVV-Led Gov't

Justice Minister and leader of the centre-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius has stated that her party will not join the next governing coalition, but that it could prop-up a gov't led by the right-wing nationalist Party for Freedom (PVV) in a confidence-and-supply agreement. Yesilgöz-Zegerius was speaking on her way into the House of Representatives, where Geert Wilders, as leader of the party that won most seats in the 22 Nov election, is set to appoint a scout who will have two weeks to sound out potential coalition partners.

• Yesilgöz-Zegerius: "I let the results sink in. In the end we lost ten seats....The big winners of the elections are PVV and NSC, that is where the initiative lies. For us, this means that we will take on a different role. That we will not sit in the cabinet....However, we feel a responsibility to make a cabinet of winners possible. We will support that. That could be in the form of toleration."
• Without involvement of the VVD, a majority coalition led by the PVV is not mathematically possible. Instead, the option on the table for Wilders appears to be a minority gov't involving the PVV, Pieter Omzigt's centrist New Social Contract (NSC) and the agrarian-populist Farmer-Citizens Movement (BBB). This coalition would have 64 seats in the House of Representatives, short of the 76 required for a majority.
• For more info on potential coalitions and the make-up of the new parliament please seeour bullet from 23 Nov.