After 200 Days of Negotiations, Netherlands Forms Government But Excludes Populist Wilders

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

After over 200 days of negotiating, four of the political parties in the Netherlands have finally formed a coalition government excluding the second largest party, led by anti-mass migration firebrand Geert Wilders.

On Tuesday Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced that his party, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, along with Christian Democratic CDA, the left-liberal D66 and the Christian Union CU will form a working government.

The parties have agreed to reduce the limit of financial contributions to asylum seekers but have also upped the limit of asylum seekers per year from 500 to 750 Tagesspiegel reports.

Notably absent from the coalition is the leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) Geert Wilders, well-known for his tough stances on Islamisation and mass migration.

Wilders, whose party came second in the election earlier in the year, took to Twitter to comment on the new migrant proposal saying the coalition, also known as “Rutte III,” was, “already a disaster for Netherlands!”

In other areas, the coalition has shifted somewhat to the right. National income tax is scheduled to be reduced by around six billion euros and corporate taxes will be reduced from 25 to 21 percent and all taxes on dividends will be gotten rid of entirely.

The Netherlands will pursue more green policies by closing down its five major coal-fired power plants by 2030 despite the fact that previous governments had poured billions of euros into them and some were only recently built.

It took the Dutch 208 days to form the coalition, a record in Dutch politics, but also a trend that is playing out in Germany where no coalition has yet been formed after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union saw their worst result since 1949.

The German Social Democrats also saw their worst result under Martin Schulz since the Second World War. Both parties lost a great deal of support to the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) who were deeply critical of how both parties handled the 2015 migrant crisis.

 

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com 

 

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.