Dutch coalition talks collapse averted

HOLLAND: A collapse in talks to form a new Dutch coalition Government was averted Thursday when the Christian Democrats opted to stay in the negotiations after resolving an internal dispute, party officials said.

The Liberals and Christian Democrats (CDA) began talks on Aug. 9 about forming a minority government with parliamentary support from the anti-immigrant Freedom Party (PVV), but concern grew in CDA ranks about the PVV's views on Islam.

A late-night CDA meeting, however, resolved the issue when the party agreed to press ahead with the talks and assess at the end what sort of working coalition agreement could be reached.

"I am very happy that we have unanimously ... been able to agree on this," CDA leader Maxime Verhagen said on Dutch TV.

The Netherlands has been without a permanent government since late February when the last coalition collapsed in a dispute over the Dutch military mission in Afghanistan.

Parliamentary elections on June 9 handed a narrow victory to the Liberals, while the Christian Democrats - dominant for most of the last 40 years - slipped to fourth place.

That left the two parties no choice but to negotiate with the Freedom Party, the biggest winner in the elections in terms of the number of seats gained.

But Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders stirred up dissent within the Christian Democrats by announcing he would give a speech in New York on September 11 at a rally against a planned mosque.

Prominent Christian Democrat members, including two former prime ministers, have cautioned that cooperating with Wilders could compromise the party's values and had called for an end to the talks. Amsterdam, Thursday, Reuters