–Adds details in final four paragraphs.

AMSTERDAM (MNI) – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte presented the
resignation of his government to Queen Beatrix on Monday after the
collapse of a parliamentary partnership with a far-right-wing party amid
disagreements about cutting the country’s budget deficit.

Rutte, a member of the liberal VVD party, unexpectedly announced on
Saturday that negotiations with its partners over budget cuts for 2013
had abruptly ended after seven weeks of talks.

The breakdown came of the after the far-right Euro-skeptic Party
for Freedom, which was not in the coalition but had until then supported
the government, refused to agree with the proposed cuts.

Geert Wilders, head of the party, said that the cuts were too
severe, especially for people on pensions. He also objected to pressure
on the Dutch government to meet its European deficit targets.

“The Netherlands shouldn’t submit to pressure from Brussels,”
Wilders said.

The cuts are necessary to get the country’s budget deficit to 3% of
GDP by the end of 2013. The Netherlands had previously been a adamant
supporter of a strict European policy on budget deficits.

Dutch leaders are discussing the possibility of having elections in
the next few months, but have not decided on a date. Some are pointing
to June 27 as a possible date.

Finance minister Jan Kees de Jager said he hoped “that the
parliament will ask the outgoing cabinet to keep going with the measures
to cut the deficit.”

Dutch business leaders said the fall of the government would
worsen the country’s economic problems.

“This is the worst possible moment for the government to fall,” the
outgoing chairman of Akzo Nobel, Hans Wijers, told the Financieele
Dagblad newspaper. “This will possibly lead to a higher interest rates
on Dutch treasury bonds and will make the need for budget cuts even
bigger.”

Although sudden, the fall of the government was not completely
unexpected. From the start of the coalition of the VVD and CDA parties
in October 2010, with the support of the Party for Freedom, there were
frequent disagreements.

The disagreements were not only about financial matters but also
included issues like Afghanistan and immigration. The Party for Freedom
is anti-Europe and anti-immigration. The situation worsened recently
when a prominent Party for Freedom member, Hero Brinkman, split to form
his own party, depriving the coalition of a majority in parliament.

Rutte is scheduled to speak to the Dutch parliament on Tuesday,
which the crisis will be debated by lawmakers.

–Paris newsroom, +33142715540;
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