Party revolt shatters moves to form Govt

Press, 27 October 1977, Page 9

Party revolt shatters moves to form Govt

NZPA-Reuter The Hague

The extended political crisis over the formation of a new Cabinet in the Netherlands worsened yesterday after an internal Labour Party revolt against the party leadership. The party’s policy-making council swept aside the advice of the caretaker Prime Minister (Mr Joop den Uyl) and other leaders when it voted in Utrecht to reject a share out of Cabinet seats negotiated with two other parties.

The revolt came five months to the day after the Labour Party celebrated an unprecedented gain of 10 seats in a General Election for the 150-seat Lower House of Parliament. Angry' Labour Left-wing-ers accused the Christian Democrats, who came; second in the election with 49 seats to Labour’s 53, of

trying to overturn the voters’ verdict through stonewalling tactics. Mr den Uyl was to have been summoned by the Queen yesterday to resume his efforts to form a new Cabinet, interrupted three times since May by breakdowns in the talks. Labour officials said the Parliamentary group would meet today to review its earlier 32-14 vote in favour of the accord in the light of the party council decision. The dispute might have to be resolved by a special party congress, the supreme policy-making body. The draft accord, hammered out in the early hours of Tuesday morning, gave the Christian Democrats and the Labour Party seven Ministerial posts each, with the small Left-Liberal Democrats ’66 party taking two. i Political observers said the Labour revolt could be ‘the final death-knell for Mr

den Uyl’s hopes of forming another coalition with the Christian Democrats.

The May 25 election result pointed clearly in the direction of a new Labour-Chris-tian Democrat partnership, the only grouping able to command a clear majority in Parliament. But relations between the two camps have become steadily worse over the last five months, and particularly in the period since agreement was reached on a draft Government programme in September. Because the country is governed bv a caretaker Cabinet, Parliament has been unable to start debating the Budget and other vital decisions have been postponed.

Political commentators have said that if all else fails the Netherlands may have to choose between new elections and a minority Government, generally viewed as a last resort.