THE HAGUE (AFX) - Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands on Saturday appointed a former prime minister to handle negotiations over forming a minority government after the resignation of the centre-right government earlier this week.
Ruud Lubbers will try to form a temporary minority government of his Christian Democrat CDA party with the rightwing liberal VVD, led by outgoing Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende (CDA), he told journalists after meeting the queen Saturday.
The temporary minority government will not be the same as the usual caretaker administration set up after a government resigns here because it will have more powers.
In the Dutch system caretaker governments are not allowed to handle so-called controversial issues, while a minority government does not have those restrictions.
Lubbers said he expects that general elections will be held in November. Until that time the CDA and VVD will form a minority government, which will have to rely on the support of various small opposition parties.
Balkenende officially submitted his government's resignation Friday, after a simmering immigration debate spilled over into a full-scale political crisis.
The resignation came after D66, a junior coalition partner, withdrew its support for the government in a row over the handling of the citizenship of Somali-born former lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
D66, which had three of the 25 government posts, quit the coalition, which had taken power in May 2003, after failing to force Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk (VVD) to resign.
Verdonk, known for her tough position on immigration, announced in May that Hirsi Ali would have to give up her Dutch passport because she had lied on her asylum application, but this week reversed that decision.
D66 criticized the minister, who prides herself on her motto 'rules are rules', for being too rigid in her interpretation of immigration regulations. The party's parliamentary group finally broke with the cabinet after a heated debate in which Verdonk refused to apologise for the way the Hirsi Ali case was handled.
Hirsi Ali, who came to international attention in 2004 after her friend and collaborator Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim extremist, has since stepped down as a lawmaker and left for the United States. newsdesk@afxnews.com afp/jlw COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2005. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited