Amsterdam, Jun. 12, (dpa/GNA) – The radical right-wing populist Geert Wilders has reached an agreement with his future coalition partners on the composition of the new Cabinet in the Netherlands.
Wilders said on Tuesday in The Hague that they had agreed on the distribution of portfolios between the parties, and on the candidates to fill the posts.
It was already known that the independent former head of the secret service and former senior civil servant in the Ministry of Justice, Dick Schooff, would become the new prime minister.
Wilder’s radical right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) is set to co-govern the Netherlands for the first time.
“We are very happy there is a deal,” said Wilders. How the portfolios would now be allocated and who would become ministers would be announced “in the next few hours or days,” he said.
The four coalition partners had previously agreed that around half of the ministers should not come from party politics.
Wilders himself had renounced the office of prime minister in order to make the coalition possible.
The far-right politician won the parliamentary elections in November with his anti-Islam party by a surprisingly large margin, but he needs at least two partners for a parliamentary majority.
He will now govern with the right-wing liberal governing People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) of outgoing prime minister Mark Rutte, the right-wing conservative New Social Contract (NSC) and the populist Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB).
Rutte had already announced his intention to leave politics before the election. He has been prime minister for almost 14 years and now wants to become NATO secretary general.
All candidates for the Cabinet, with the exception of the future prime minister, still have to undergo parliamentary hearings. The Cabinet will then be sworn in by King Willem-Alexander at the end of June.
The four future coalition partners have so far only agreed on the main features of their government policy. The new ministers are to draw up a detailed government programme in the summer.
GNA