CDA 'will not accept' Bos as prime minister 02/10/2006 00:00

2 October 2006

AMSTERDAM — As polls indicate a neck-and-neck race between the incumbent Christian Democrat CDA and opposition Labour PvdA, the Liberal VVD's Gerrit Zalm has poured cold water on talk the PvdA could supply the next prime minister.

VVD Deputy Prime Minister Prime Minister Zalm said the CDA would never choose for PvdA leader Wouter Bos as prime minister if there was another alternative such as a continued VVD-CDA coalition government.

Zalm wrote in his weblog on Monday that a continuation of the current CDA and VVD coalition is almost guaranteed if the two parties win a combined majority at the 22 November election and the PvdA emerges as the biggest party.

He said the crux of the matter was not whether the CDA or PvdA becomes the largest party, but whether the CDA and VVD could obtain a parliamentary majority.

If the CDA becomes the biggest party after the election, Zalm said a coalition with the PvdA could then be possible, but then with a CDA prime minister.

He said former CDA prime minister Ruud Lubbers had also established a coalition government with both the VVD and PvdA.

Meanwhile, the weekly Maurice de Hond poll has indicated that PvdA is maintaining a slight lead over the CDA. If an election was held now, Labour would win 42 seats and the Christian Democrats 41.

In comparison with a week ago, the CDA has climbed three seats higher and the PvdA has lost a seat in signs the election could turn into a neck-and-neck race.

The PvdA is steadily losing ground compared with the situation in March 2006 as the CDA moves from strength to strength. At that time, the PvdA was set to win 50 seats and the CDA just 33.

In the latest survey, the VVD is forecast to win 29 seats, one more than the 2003 election. But that is not enough to give a CDA-VVD coalition a majority in the 150-seat Dutch Parliament.

Meanwhile, former government party D66 looks set to lose five seats, retaining just one, and the Socialist SP, which currently has nine seats, would win 18. Green-left GroenLinks would win seven seats and the ChristenUnie six.

[Copyright Expatica News 2006]

Subject: Dutch news