THE HAGUE: Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten was to hold crisis talks with key partners Friday in a last-ditch bid to save his minority coalition government from collapse only nine months after taking power.
An unseemly political row over tax policy has raised the spectre of snap elections in the European Union’s fifth-largest economy and weakened the centrist Jetten, the country’s youngest-ever prime minister.
Since winning a razor-thin election, Jetten’s D66 party has been in an uneasy three-way coalition with the center-right CDA and the right-wing VVD.
After months of complex debate over tax policy, the D66 and CDA struck a deal with the opposition left-wing PRO party, enraging the VVD.
VVD leader Dilan Yesilgoz, also defense minister, lashed out, saying the coalition would require a “fundamental reset” if her partners sided with the opposition.
“We have been blindsided by a proposal that, in our view, jeopardizes the stability of the Netherlands, our economic growth and our business climate,” fumed Yesilgoz.
Following a whole day of debate Thursday, the tax deal won a razor-thin parliamentry majority but the VVD voted against the government’s own policy, shattering the whole foundation of the coalition.
The PM himself acknowledged there would need to be a “serious fresh start” and called in Yesilgoz and a top CDA official for showdown talks Friday morning.
