Dutch deficit talks collapse

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The ruling Dutch minority government was on the brink of collapse Saturday after antiEuropean Union lawmaker Geert Wilders torpedoed seven weeks of austerity talks, saying he would not cave in to budget demands from “dictators in Brussels.”

New national elections that will be a referendum on the Netherlands’ relationship with Europe and its ailing single currency are now all but certain.

But before Prime Minister Mark Rutte can tender his resignation, possibly as early as Monday, he must consult with allies and opposition parties on how to run a caretaker government that will have to make important economic decisions in the coming weeks and months.

“Elections are the logical next step,” Rutte said.

Opposition leader Diederik Sansom of the Labor Party joined others across the political spectrum in calling for new elections as soon as possible.

“In the meanwhile, we in Parliament will take responsibility for a careful budget in 2013,” he said.

Austerity talks began in early March after the Dutch economy sank into recession and forecasts showed the 2012 budget deficit will reach 4.6 percent, well above the 3 percent limit mandated by European rules.

Dutch politicians have strongly demanded that Greece and other countries meet that target.

Rutte leads the free-market Liberal Party in a minority coalition with the center-right Christian Democrats with outside support from Wilders’ Freedom Party. Wilders is widely known for his antiIslam and anti-eu opinions, including calls for Greece to return to the drachma and the Netherlands to leave the euro.

Rutte said negotiations had been rounded off Friday to deliver a “balanced package” of cuts, but Wilders walked out after discussing the package with his Freedom Party.

Christian Democrat leader Maxime Verhagen accused Wilders of “political cowardice” for refusing to sign off on the cuts — details of which have not yet been released.

Wilders was happy to take the blame, saying he “would not accept that the elderly in the Netherlands have to pay for nonsensical demands from Brussels.” He underlined that an accord would have been possible had the coalition been less concerned with following European rules to the letter. Information for this article was contributed from Amsterdam by Toby Sterling of The Associated Press.