By Charlotte Van Campenhout
AMSTERDAM, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Three Dutch centre and centre-right parties will start trying to form a government together, government negotiator Sybrand van Haersma Buma said on Monday.
The parties are election winner D66, the conservative Christian Democrats (CDA) and the pro-business VVD Party.
Buma added that they would either form a minority government together or a majority government with the addition of another party, as yet unknown.
The three-party minority coalition would hold 66 seats in the 150-seat lower house and would need to seek support for its policies on a case-by-case basis.
“This next phase is meant … to further explore how broad support can be secured,” Buma said.
“That broad support may be found in either an incidental or a structural form in a minority cabinet with agreements, but also in a majority arrangement. That option is still on the table as well.”
The Netherlands is usually run by majority coalitions that agree on a detailed government pact before they are installed.
While Geert Wilders’ PVV party finished a close second at the last election, all major mainstream parties have ruled out governing with him after he brought down the last coalition, led by his PVV.
Adding the Greens-Labour party GL-PvdA to a coalition of VVD, D66 and CDA would secure a majority – but in the run-up to the election, VVD ruled out governing with GL-PvdA.
GL-PvdA leader Jesse Klaver has expressed disappointment in Dutch media that his party has been excluded from the government formation talks so far.
(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Louise Rasmussen; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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