Right-wing alliance possible after indecicive Dutch election, but talks likely to take months

Anti-Islam party might join Dutch Cabinet

AMSTERDAM — A hard right-wing government including the anti-Islam party of populist Geert Wilders emerged as an increasing possibility Thursday, as Dutch voters weighed the inconclusive outcome of a national election.

The returns from Wednesday’s balloting split votes roughly evenly between parties that want to make severe budget cuts and continue a crackdown on immigration, and those that want to integrate Muslims and preserve the benefits of a generous welfare state.

Neither group commands a majority, and analysts foresee a tricky coalition-building process that could run into the weeks or months, a potential nightmare at a time when the Netherlands — like other European countries sharing the common currency — struggles to contain government debt.

With nearly all votes counted, the free-market VVD led left-leaning Labor 31 seats to 30 in the 150-seat parliament. That is the smallest plurality for any governing party in the country in modern history, and will force a coalition of at least three, probably four parties.

Wilders’ Freedom Party booked the biggest gains and came third with 24 seats, up from the nine his party holds in the current parliament.

Official results won’t be released until June 15, when all overseas votes have been counted.

As leader of the largest party, Mark Rutte, a 43-year-old former Unilever personnel manager who became VVD leader after a bitter internal fight in 2006, was almost certain to be given the first chance to form a coalition.

“I would like to see a new Cabinet put together as soon as possible because of the seriousness of the economic crisis,” Rutte told reporters Thursday.

“It’s a complicated result, but on the other hand the sovereign voter has spoken, and it’s up to politicians to put together a good Cabinet with it.”

Rutte was expected to speak first with Wilders, who split from VVD to form his own party in 2004, deeming the VVD too soft on immigration.

Wilders said he wants to work with Rutte, and dropped a pre-election vow not to raise the retirement age to 67 — one of the VVD’s key reforms.

Like Wilders, Rutte wants to limit immigration, especially those who could be a drain on welfare funds. But he stops short of Wilders’ radical platform, which would ban further immigration from Muslim countries and would tax headscarves for Muslim women already here. Muslims make up about 6 percent of the Dutch population.

But the two would need to attract a third party in order to gain a 76-seat majority in parliament.

Wilders’ unrestrained antagonism toward Islam makes him political dynamite, and many parties including Labor have said they would never sit in the same government with him.

Wilders has an international reputation as a maverick after his short film “Fitna,” which outraged many Muslims around the world by equating Islam to violence. He faces prosecution in a Dutch court later this year for inciting hatred for comparing Islam to Nazism and calling for a ban on the Quran.

Rutte’s other coalition option is to compromise on core elements of his conservative vision by linking with Labor, led by former Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen, which wants to preserve the welfare state and also work harder to integrate Muslims into Dutch society.

The VVD wants to reduce the 6.6 percent budget deficit by cutting government jobs, while Labor wants to raise taxes on the rich.

For the moment Rutte has declined to comment on the shape of the coalition he has in mind. “That wouldn’t be good for the negotiations at all,” he said.

“The voter … has given such a divided advice that all options are possible,” political analyst Kees Boonman said on Dutch television. He said it was possible that after months of negotiations with all possible configurations, “nothing will work: left, right or center.”

Meanwhile, outgoing Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who led the government for eight years, has announced he will leave politics after his party lost 20 of its 41 seats, its worst showing in three decades.

Maxime Verhagen, the foreign minister in Balkenende’s Cabinet, took over the party leadership Thursday, although Balkendende remains the caretaker premier until a new coalition is installed.