Dutch voters are turning against austerity measures and euro zone bailouts, issues which are expected to dominate the political debate ahead of a general election on September 12, an opinion poll published on Sunday showed.
The Dutch centre-right government - a coalition between Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberal Party and the Christian Democrats, and supported by Geert Wilders' anti-euro, anti-Islam party - collapsed last month when it failed to reach an agreement on budget cuts.
In recent weeks, political parties with an anti-euro agenda or critical stance on euro zone issues have gained support, a new poll by Maurice de Hond showed, although none would be able to form a majority coalition government if elections were held today.
That suggests the Netherlands, one of the last triple-A rated euro zone members, could face months of uncertainty over domestic and European policies.
Public support for new budget cuts - eventually agreed by the caretaker government with the support of three small opposition parties and deemed crucial if the country is to meet EU deficit targets next year - is fading, while the Dutch appear increasingly worried about handing over more power to Brussels.
Exactly half of those polled are opposed to the new budget cuts, and only 31 percent are in favour, the poll showed, whereas three weeks ago, 51 percent backed the measures and 28 percent were against. Dutch voters are deeply divided over support for European bailouts and about yielding greater power to Brussels: half of those surveyed said the Netherlands should not ratify the euro zone's new permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), without holding a referendum first.
Wilders has promised to turn the election into a referendum on the euro and the European Union, and has said he wants the Dutch parliament to postpone ratification of the ESM until after the election in September.
The Dutch political landscape is highly fractured: no single party can muster a majority, which means the largest party will have to form a coalition based on three or four partners to have more than half of the 150 seats in parliament.
The latest opinion poll showed the Socialist Party, which has opposed euro zone bailouts, was well ahead of other parties with 29 seats. The party's support comes mainly from lower income groups who are afraid that the generous social benefits system will suffer more cuts.
Prime Minister Rutte's pro-European Liberals were in second place with 25 seats. Both Wilders' Freedom Party and the Labour Party, which has become far more critical of euro zone austerity measures, have risen in the polls, with 23 seats each.
The poll showed that it would be impossible to form a viable coalition around the left-leaning, centrist, or liberal parties, raising the likelihood of further political uncertainty after the elections.
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