THE HAGUE, 25/01/03 - Although the voters gave Labour (PvdA) substantial gains in last Wednesday's election, they did not reject the present center-right cabinet, Christian democrat (CDA) leader Jan Peter Balkenende claimed Friday. "There has been no landslide in policy," he said on Friday.

Balkenende still considers that the conclusion is being drawn "too quickly" that the CDA should govern with the PvdA, which shot up from 23 to 42 Lower House seats at the election to end just behind the CDA, with 44 seats. He pointed out that the parties forming the present coalition, CDA, the conservatives (VVD) and Pim Fortuyn List (LPF), retained their majority in the 150-man Lower House, with 80 seats between them.

On Friday, Balkenende advised the Queen to appoint a CDA politician to analyze the conclusions drawn by the parties from Wednesday's election and decide which programmatic differences and similarities are important for the formation of a new cabinet. This 'informateur' must also catalogue the willingness of the various parties to take part in negotiations, Balkenende observed.

PvdA leader Wouter Bos also advised Queen Beatrix to appoint a CDA informateur, but he does not support a substantive prior orientation. "That is wasting time. The important thing is to establish the political will to work together. If that exists, we will reach agreement. I do not intend to negotiate with someone if I am not certain they want to negotiate," Bos said after his visit to Noordeinde Palace. According to his official statement, Bos did not specifically press for a CDA-PvdA cabinet, but for a "stable government. "

After Balkenende and Bos, VVD leader Gerrit Zalm visited the Queen. He hinted afterwards that he had little enthusiasm for prolonging the current coalition between CDA, VVD and LPF. "Balkenende said this would lack credibility, and it would be a strange outcome of a cabinet crisis to bring back an identical cabinet. " A VVD-CDA cabinet with the center-left (D66) party is out of the question, at the insistence of D66, Zalm pointed out.

Zalm, too, advised the Queen to appoint a CDA informateur. The VVD leader observed that a new cabinet must do justice to the election result. He did not fully agree with Balkenende's analysis that voters had not rejected the policies of the current center-right cabinet.

Balkenende claimed that the reproach by Bos that his proposed pre-investigation would lead to delay in the cabinet formation was unjustified. Balkenende pointed out that he had received criticisms that the previous cabinet formation was rushed through too quickly. "We must ensure that we do it well and with due consideration this time. "

After the parliamentary leaders of the three largest parties, the Queen successively received Socialist Party (SP) leader Jan Marijnissen, LPF foreman Mat Herben and the leaders of the leftwing Greens (GroenLinks), center-left (D66), and the small Christian parties ChristenUnie and SGP. They all stated that the first step was to look at a CDA-PvdA cabinet.