Rutte’s prospects of forming a new government diminish when a coalition partner stops

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s prospects to form a new government waned on Saturday when a coalition partner considered essential for obtaining a parliamentary majority was barred from joining a new government. government headed by him.

Rutte narrowly survived a vote of no confidence on Friday after parliament passed a motion disapproving of his behavior during talks about the formation of a new government.

But ChristenUnie leader Gert Jan Segers said in an interview with the Nederlands Dagblad: “We don’t want to go back to ‘business as usual’. We cannot be part of a Rutte cabinet 4 ”.

ChristenUnie has been one of the four government parties led by Rutte’s conservative VVD party since 2017.

Rutte, in office since 2010 and often an influential figure in the European Union, was the decisive winner of the general election two weeks ago.

But he narrowly survived the vote of no confidence, which accused him of not speaking the truth about suggestions he made about the possible future of a critical lawmaker from another party.

All parties outside his coalition have voted to remove him immediately.

That seemed to have left the current coalition as the only viable option for Rutte to form his fourth consecutive government, until Segers’ move blocked that road on Saturday.

Rutte, who will remain as the janitor prime minister, said on Friday that he had not given up hope of forming a new government as he expected formation negotiations to resume in the coming weeks.

Parliament will appoint an independent official next week who will be tasked with mapping out ways to relaunch the government formation process.

An opinion poll published in response to the debate about mistrust found that Rutte’s support among the general public had declined from 54% a week earlier to 25%.