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Dutch parties agree on final formation of rightwing government, Wilders says

By Thomson Reuters Jun 11, 2024 | 6:22 AM

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Political parties in the Netherlands have reached a final agreement on the formation of their incoming right-wing government, election winner Geert Wilders said on Tuesday.

After almost six months of negotiations, Wilders’ nationalist PVV party reached an agreement last month to form a coalition with three other conservative parties but they had not agreed on cabinet posts.

“We have reached an agreement,” Wilders told reporters after almost four weeks of talks on the distribution of jobs over the four parties.

The coalition last month already said political outsider Dick Schoof, who is not affiliated to any party, would become prime minister of the new government.

Schoof, 67, was the senior official at the Dutch justice ministry until last month after having led the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD and anti-terrorism agency NCTV for years. He was the head of the Dutch immigration service in the early 2000s.

He will head a cabinet that the four parties have said would have looser ties to parliament. No details on who would fill the other posts in cabinet have been announced yet.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer,; Editing by Peter Graff and Angus MacSwan)