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Far-right in Netherlands set to form coalition government

FAR-RIGHT Dutch politician Geert Wilders was on the verge today of brokering a four-party coalition six months after winning the most seats during the November 2023 general election.

The move opens the prospect of yet another European nation lurching to the far right weeks ahead of EU parliamentary elections.

Mr Wilders has said that he does not expect to become prime minister himself because he remains too extreme for his coalition partners, but his Party for Freedom would be the driving force in a four-party coalition.

With far-right parties now part of or leading a half-dozen governments in the 27-nation bloc, they appear positioned to make gains in the June 6-9 EU polls.

“I hope we will get there. I think we will get there. I cannot see it going wrong,” Mr Wilders told the broadcaster NOS early on Wednesday after the four parties reached a deal on government financing, the last major stumbling block in the talks. 

It remains unclear who will become prime minister.

Outgoing prime minister Mark Rutte’s right-wing People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy and the populist Farmer Citizen Movement are also in the coalition talks.

Mr Wilders’s Party for Freedom won 37 seats in the 150-seat lower house of the Dutch parliament, and the coalition will hold a comfortable majority of 88 seats.

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