THE HAGUE, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The outgoing Prime Minister Mark Dutte, whose Liberal Party (VVD) won the Dutch general elections, said Thursday that he didn't want to speculate about the process of forming a new coalition.
"I hope we can form a cabinet very soon, but speculating about what will happen will not stimulate the formation of the coalition," he said during his first faction meeting after the victory of his party.
Rutte told reporters that he had slept well, after a short night when he celebrated his victory together with other VVD members in a beach resort in Scheveningen.
The ruling VVD (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) won 41, 10 more than in 2010, out of the total 150 parliamentary seats, while the Labor Party (PvdA) got 39 seats. The number of seats of both parties was much higher than the poll in recent weeks.
The first meeting of the new parliament is scheduled on Sept. 20, when a debate is scheduled over the formation of the government and the appointment of a negotiator.
According to the Dutch tradition, it is expected that the VVD will provide most ministers, including the prime minister.
The VVD, which also won the previous elections two years ago, was leading the polls for weeks, but the PvdA led by Diederik Samsom made a strong comeback. It finally ended up in a big battle between the center-left and the center-right.
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