(Reuters) UPDATE: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte ruled out fresh elections on Tuesday after Hero Brinkman quit the PVV that supports his coalition, depriving him of a parliamentary majority and making it harder to cut the budget deficit.
The loss of majority support will make it tougher for Rutte, of the conservative Liberal VVD party, to shrink the budget deficit in ongoing talks on spending cuts with Wilders and the main coalition partner, the Christian Democratic CDA. Rutte will now have to bargain with Brinkman, who will continue as a one-man faction, or other smaller parties to pass legislation in the lower house where he now only has the guaranteed support of 75 of the 150 members.
“I don’t see any reason for elections,” Rutte told reporters after the Socialist and GreenLeft opposition parties called for a fresh vote. Rutte said he had always been in charge of a minority government – as the two main coalition parties only have 52 seats – and Brinkman’s departure from the PVV would not change the situation. Brinkman said he would continue to support the coalition from outside the PVV, making an imminent government collapse unlikely. But he stopped short of pledging unconditional backing for the new budget cuts. “You should never support something in advance before you know the content, but the chance that I’d see insuperable problems is very small in my view,” Brinkman told reporters.
