With Wilders out of the way, the real work on forming a new coalition government can begin, writes Robin Pascoe

So the first phase of the long march to find a new coalition government for the Netherlands is over.
On the fifth day of talks, Geert Wilders has been shown the door and the rest of the winners in last week’s general election are at the negotiating table instead.
Liberal leader Mark Rutte had no choice but to start off the negotiations with Wilders – the PVV was the big winner in last Wednesday’s vote and had to be dealt with first.
Martyr
Rutte knew the chances of forming a right-wing coalition were extremely slim. But he had to show willing to talk to the PVV from the word go to avoid turning Wilders into a martyr.
And Wilders was so desperate to join the government that he began dropping essential items from the party’s manifesto as soon as the votes were counted, so who knew what they could achieve.
The key to the success for Wilders lay with the Christian Democrats – the only other party that had not expressly ruled out a coalition with the anti-Islam party.
Refusal
But new leader Maxime Verhagen stood quite firm. He steadfastly refused to join in the talks, telling the VVD and PVV they first had to work out their differences over the economy and over xenophobic PVV policies such as a Muslim headscarf tax and ethnic registration.
By doing this, Verhagen was both forcing Rutte to reveal his true colours and offering him a soft opt out. Could Rutte, who calls himself a Liberal in the true sense of the word, really form a government with a man who calls for kneecapping, mass deportations and commandos on the streets?
We still don’t know. But there was no apparent progress on the VVD and PVV alliance apart from a few vague comments about ‘we could do business together’.
Blame
So Verhagen stood on the sidelines and watched the collapse of the right-wing coalition talks, giving Rutte a clean hand to continue and Wilders an easy target to blame.
Coalition negotiator Uri Rosenthal was quick to say that he could not form a working coalition between the parties. Wilders huffed and puffed about the betrayal of 1.5 million voters and was sent off to the opposition benches.
With Wilders gone, Labour leader Job Cohen can now take centre stage and the real negotiations can begin. After all, Labour was a very close second to the VVD in the election and with 1.8 million votes represents a lot more people than Wilders.
Liberals
And despite the fragmented nature of the political make-up of the Netherlands ‘Purple plus’ with the Liberal democrats and left-wing greens GroenLinks has always been the best bet for a stable coalition.
GroenLinks might have originated in the Communist Party all those years ago, but we should not forget GroenLinks leader Femke Halsema was once elected Liberal of the Year by the VVD’s youth wing.
Nor should we forget it was Job Cohen who toughened up Dutch immigration and asylum laws while junior justice minister, before becoming mayor of Amsterdam. He’s a bridge builder, but he is not soft.
July 1
Throughout the campaign, Rutte said the gap between Labour and the VVD had never been so great in terms of economic policy. But he also called the PVV socialist on the economy – so there must be room to manoeuvre.
Of course, this may all take some time, and go beyond Rutte’s July 1 target. But does that really matter?
After all, the Netherlands has been without a proper government since the end of February, but has anyone really noticed?