New Dutch Government Topples

The Dutch government collapsed Wednesday, done in by friction among the coalition partners and a power struggle within one of the three parties, the upstart Pim Fortuyn's List.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told Parliament the 12-week-old coalition was unworkable, and he had decided to submit his resignation to Queen Beatrix.

Balkenende, who spoke to the queen earlier Wednesday, was likely to go through the formality of giving her his resignation letter later in the day.

"I came to the conclusion that no further fruitful, long-lasting partnership is possible within the coalition," Balkenende said in a prepared statement to Parliament. "Therefore, I plan to offer the (Cabinet's) resignation to the queen."

Balkenende said the crisis began to spiral out of control last Friday, when personal disputes between two Cabinet ministers — both members of the Pim Fortuyn's List party, or LPF — reached the point where the two other coalition partners lost faith in the upstart party.

Earlier, the two feuding ministers, Health Minister Eduard Bomhoff and Economic Affairs Minister Herman Heinsbroek, had agreed to quit in hopes of salvaging the government, but the move failed to avert the collapse.

"I did everything I could to resolve the conflict between the two ministers, but I wasn't successful," the prime minister said, after a day of hasty consultations.

The resignation was likely to lead to new elections within three months, making the Balkenende government the shortest lived since World War II.

It also could mean the virtual demise of the far-right party LPF, which thundered into the Dutch political scene early this year on a platform of curbing immigration and crime. Its founder, Pim Fortuyn, was murdered nine days before the May 15 election that swept his party into a second-place finish on a wave of sympathy.

Recent polls suggest the LPF has lost nearly all its public support, and would retain just a few of the 26 seats it won in May in the 150-member Parliament.

Other European governments were closely watching the political drama in the Netherlands, as a critical decision approached on whether to admit new members into the 15-nation European Union. The Dutch had taken a hard line against admitting all 10 applicants from eastern Europe.

The outgoing foreign minister, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said the EU decision-making process on expansion would go on. "NATO and the EU will not wait for the Netherlands," he said, although it was not clear how much influence the Dutch will have with only a caretaker government.

Gerrit Zalm, a leader of the free-market Liberals known as the VVD, called for elections quickly as possible, perhaps as early as January.

"The LPF is no longer a partner we can trust, and we want new elections, preferably as soon as possible. It's gone far enough with all this bickering. It's time to let the people speak," he said, speaking shortly before Balkenende addressed the legislature.

Zalm said the VVD and Balkenende's Christian Democrats could win enough seats in a new election to form a government without the LPF.

Jeltje van Nieuwehoven, a leader of the opposition Labor party, said elections were inevitable, and should be held as early as possible. "As far as I'm concerned, the new campaign has already begun," she told Dutch television.

By Anthony Deutsch