Dutch election winner Rob Jetten acknowledged on Thursday, November 13th, that building a new government will be a major challenge with parties still deadlocked two weeks after the national vote.
Jetten’s liberal D66 party narrowly defeated Geert Wilders’ conservative, nationalist Freedom Party (PVV) by just 30,000 votes. However, no single party has enough seats to govern alone, meaning a coalition is essential.
Jetten hopes to form a broad government including the centre-right CDA, the liberal VVD, and the left-wing Green/Labour alliance. But VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz has rejected the plan, calling it “too left-wing.” Instead, he supports a more right-leaning coalition.
Angered by his exclusion from talks, Wilders urged other parties to cooperate with the PVV, calling it “a disgrace” to ignore the votes of 1.7 million Dutch citizens.
Negotiations are expected to continue for weeks as parties attempt to break the political deadlock.
