Related News:
Dutch Coalition Talks Threatened as Lubbers Changes Mind on Wilders Party
Three-time Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, who brokered talks on forming a government between his Christian Democrats, the Liberal Party, and the anti-Islam Freedom Party, said he now opposed the plan, citing concerns about freedom of religion.
“My stance has developed from a ‘yes, but’ to a ‘no, unless,’” Lubbers wrote in an Aug. 20 letter to the Christian Democrat leader in parliament, Maxime Verhagen, and party chairman Henk Bleker published by Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant today.
Lubbers’s change of view may jeopardize the formal negotiations that started last month on establishing a Liberal- Christian Democrat government that would rely on the support of the Freedom Party, led by Geert Wilders, to get legislation through parliament. It would be the Netherlands’ first minority administration since World War II.
Other senior Christian Democrats have also expressed opposition against the talks with Wilders. His party seeks to ban new mosques, curb immigration, cut development aid and reduce European Union influence in the Netherlands.
“Freedom of religion -- also of Islam -- and no discrimination based on religion or world view have to remain essential features of our constitutional state,” Lubbers wrote. “On that, there can’t be a shadow of a doubt.”
The Freedom Party more than doubled its representation to 24 lawmakers in June 9 elections, while support for the Christian Democrats, then led by outgoing Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, was cut in half to 21 seats.
If the talks fail, it would leave the Liberals led by Mark Rutte, who won the elections, with limited options to form a majority government. The most straightforward would be teaming up with the Christian Democrats and the Labor Party, which placed second in the elections.
Wilders receives police protection around the clock and faces trial in the Netherlands on charges of inciting hatred in his 2008 film “Fitna,” in which he calls on Muslims to rip out “hate-preaching” verses from the Koran.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jurjen van de Pol in Amsterdam at jvandepol@bloomberg.net.
Rate These Stories
Rate this Page