Maxime Verhagen said all members of his Christian Democrat, or CDA, party faction in Parliament will now support joining a minority Cabinet led by the pro-business VVD party with outside support from the anti-immigration Freedom Party.
“The reservations that they have against political cooperation with the Freedom Party, are still there,” Verhagen said of the former holdouts, adding they had been swayed by enthusiasm for the partnership from the CDA’s rank-and-file.
The holdouts had doubts about the wisdom of cooperating with the Freedom Party and its leader Geert Wilders, who is currently standing trial for alleged hate speech crimes.
Prosecutors say Wilders went too far with statements comparing Islam to Naziism, calling for a ban on the Qur’an and for curtailing immigration of Muslim immigrants to the Netherlands. He denies any wrongdoing, arguing that he represents more than a million Dutch people who voted for him.
In exchange for Wilders’ support, the prospective Cabinet has promised to turn away more asylum-seekers and cut immigration from nonwestern countries in half.
It also plans to ban face-covering burqas and force immigrants to pay for their own mandatory citizenship classes.
“If the government makes a decision in which the equality of people is not protected, we will vote against it,” one of the former holdouts, Kathleen Ferrier, was quoted by Elsevier magazine as saying.
Leaders of all three parties were meeting in The Hague Tuesday evening to discuss next steps.
Queen Beatrix is now expected to invite VVD leader Mark Rutte to form a government as presumptive prime minister, with the new Cabinet likely to be sworn in within days.
The new government’s plans also include €18 billion ($24 billion) in budget cuts. Targets include health care programs, overseas development aid, government workers’ pay and social welfare programs.
