The four coalition parties are holding an emergency meeting on Thursday morning to discuss this week’s vote not to back the EU’s ReArm Europe defense expenditure plans.

MPs voted 73 to 71 in favor of the motion not to support the plan, leaving the cabinet in a tricky position given that prime minister Dick Schoof had already given his initial agreement.

The VVD was the only one of the four coalition partners not to back the motion, drawn up by the one-man far-right party JA21.

Supporters of the ReArm project, presented by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen but not yet worked out in detail, say the Netherlands is becoming increasingly isolated in Europe.

The four coalition parties will now try to come up with a way out of the chaos, possibly through a “different interpretation of the text of the motion,” insiders told AD.

Dutch support is not necessary for the plan to go ahead, given that the other countries all back it. The cabinet is also free to set the motion aside and ignore it, but this may cause even more problems within the already fragile coalition.

Von der Leyen proposed raising €800 billion to rebuild Europe’s defenses and said the bill could be paid by relaxing the EU’s budget deficit rules and a €150 million collective loan scheme.

Dutch finance minister Eelco Heinen, who represents the VVD, told RTL Z that the rejection was premature. “There isn’t a plan of any kind yet,” he said. “This is based on a press release by the European Commission.

“We have always said: wait for the plans and look at the terms that the Netherlands has set. It says we are not sending extra taxpayers’ money to other countries, that we are maintaining the budget rules, and that debt sustainability is important.”

Nevertheless, the Dutch divisions again show the Netherlands has become an unpredictable partner in Europe, commentator Raoul du Pré said in an editorial in Volkskrant.

“A coalition that cannot agree on something so fundamental simply no longer has a right to exist,” he said. “So if Schoof doesn’t want to be out of a job, he must now force his governing partners to strive for the unity that these times demand. That is the very least he can expect from the people who put him in the prime minister’s office last year.”