Wilders' ally, tapped to 'scout' for Dutch coalition, quits

Gom van Strien, an ally of far-right Netherlands politician Geert Wilders, resigned from his position as coalition "scout" Monday, citing fraud allegations against him in the Dutch press over the weekend.

Van Strien, who denied any wrongdoing, said, "The unrest that has arisen around this and the preparation of a response to it do not go well with my work as scout. I have therefore told Geert Wilders and the president of the parliament that I have resigned my position as scout with immediate effect."

A senator from the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV), van Strien had been tapped by Wilders to seek out possible coalition partners with whom to form a new government.

Seeking coalition partners already uphill battle

Wilders and his anti-Islamic party were the surprise winners of last week's Dutch elections and are now looking for partners willing to form a government with them.

The PVV won 37 of the 150 parliamentary seats contested in the vote, far outpacing the second-place GreenLeft-Labor alliance, which captured 25.

Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius, the new leader of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte's VVD party, said on Friday that the party would not formally join a new coalition but might support one in parliament.

In the past, Dutch political parties vowed they would not work with the far-right firebrand Wilders, who was seen as an anti-European, anti-immigrant, anti-Islam political pariah heading a party calling for banning mosques, the Quran and headscarves, as well as seeking a national referendum on the Netherlands leaving the European Union.

Meetings scheduled to take place Monday were canceled after van Strien announced his resignation.

js/fb (AFP, AP)