THE HAGUE, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The formation of a new majority government in the Netherlands continues with a new government explorer Gerrit Zalm, the Tweede Kamer or the Dutch lower of parliament decided on Wednesday.
Khadija Arib, chairman of the lower house of parliament, handed Zalm an assignment to "investigate the possibility of a cabinet of VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie, which strives for broad support for its policy in the parliament".
Zalm immediately started talks with these four parties.
On Tuesday night, the previous explorer Herman Tjeenk Willink, who took over from Edith Schippers on May 31, handed in his final report.
Just like he predecessor, he did not manage to arrange the most-wanted government coalition between the rightist liberals VVD, the Christian Democrats CDA, the leftist liberals D66 and the green lefties GroenLinks.
The new explorer Zalm is a Dutch banker and former VVD politician who has served as Minister of Finance. He gets the task to further investigate a government with VVD, CDA, D66 and the small Christian party ChristenUnie, which has a minor majority of 76 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.
"The border between opposition and coalition should be less sharp," Tjeenk Willink already advised on Tuesday. "Subjects like climate and Europe cannot be arranged with 76 seats. You need broad support for that and a public debate."
During the debate on the final report of Tjeenk Willink on Wednesday, outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte (VVD) repeated these words.
He wants a broad support for subjects like climate and also migration. More than three months after the parliamentary elections on March 15, the search for a majority cabinet in the fragmented Dutch political landscape goes on.
