The four parties currently negotiating to extend the current coalition government will not reach a deal by December 5 as hoped, prime minister Mark Rutte said on Saturday, during the VVD annual conference.

Nevertheless, there is still hope that the negotiators may reach an agreement by Christmas, Rutte said.

The right wing liberal VVD, liberal democratic party D66, the Christian Democrats and minor Christian party ChristenUnie have been in talks for the past two months, and the general election took place in March.

Rutte said he did not consider it odd that it was taking so long to form the next government. It took six months for the current coalition to agree to work together again, he said. So it ‘not crazy’ that they have been writing a coalition agreement for six to eight weeks.

The outgoing cabinet’s focus was on the economy, he said. Now the economy is in good shape, it is time to solve the problems with public safety, the climate and education.

‘There is money for it,’ he said, ‘but I can’t guarantee it will all happen.’