Christian Democrats in Noord-Brabant province have agreed their party can form a coalition with the far right Forum voor Democratie following a poll of local party members.

In total, 816 of the 5,000 local CDA supporters took part in the poll and 56% said an alliance with the FvD was acceptable, with strict conditions.

Despite criticism from party elders, the VVD and CDA in Brabant can now press ahead with forming a coalition with the FvD after the province’s government collapsed last year.

In March the three parties, together with local interest party Lokaal Brabant, signed a document outlining the ‘principles for working together’. The CDA’s local board will now decide whether or not to press ahead with that plan.

FvD is the second largest party in Brabant, holding nine of the 55 assembly seats. National party leader Thierry Baudet earlier described the move as ‘a good step forward for Forum and a giant step for the Netherlands’.

But several CDA stalwarts, including former ministers Ernst Hirsch Ballin and Hanja Maij-Weggen have urged the party not do to it. The CDA’s political fortunes took a major knock after they joined a coalition government which was propped up by Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration PVV in 2010.

The alliance in Noord-Brabant is the first time Baudet’s party, which emerged as the big winner in last year’s provincial elections, could be formally part of a regional authority. In Limburg the party is part of a loose ‘coalition of individuals’