Wilders shuns governmental responsibility

Negotiations over a minority government comprising Christian Democrats and the right-wing Liberal Party have fallen through in the Netherlands. The right-wing populist Geert Wilders, whose Party for Freedom (PVV) had wanted to support the government, has now broken off the talks. Floris-Jan van Luyn expresses his disappointment in the daily nrc.next: "I would have been happy if this had worked out. Not because I'm a [Wilders] fan, but because just like a couple of million other Dutch people I've had enough of this party's agitation and divisiveness. ... It is clear that in the opposition the PVV will continue to grow, meaning that we'll only be in for worse times after the next elections. To get rid of the PVV as quickly as possible it would have been a good idea to include it in the government, rather than viewing that as a risk. Because if its maladjusted, anti-social policies were put into practice they would have done our country so much damage that a repetition of this mistake would be improbable."

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