Dutch right-leaning parties open government talks

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Two right-leaning Dutch political parties agreed on Friday to start talks to form a minority government, aiming to push through an austerity agenda some five months after the previous government collapsed.

The minority government -- a rarity in Dutch politics -- would include the Liberal Party (VVD), which narrowly won June 9 elections after a broader government collapsed over the Afghan military mission, and the Christian Democrats (CDA).

The anti-immigrant Freedom Party (PVV) has agreed to support the minority government in the Dutch parliament, Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders said on Dutch NOS Radio 1. CDA leader Maxime Verhagen confirmed on the radio station his party and VVD will start the negotiations.

"I am convinced that CDA and VVD can come to a government agreement that will do justice to CDA principles of freedom of religion and freedom of education," Verhagen said on the radio station.

"At the same time it is possible to come to a stable political cooperation which can have PVV's support."

While Dutch cabinets are usually majority coalitions, the latest talks come after negotiations including the Liberals and Labour parties to form a broad left-leaning government failed on budget cuts, which Liberals want to be up to 20 billion euros ($26.10 billion) by 2015.

The Liberals narrowly won the June 9 election, while the Freedom Party showed the biggest gains in parliamentary seats.

The Christian Democrats lost half their seats to come fourth in the elections, but have been in governments since the party's creation in 1977 apart from a hiatus between 1994 and 2002.

The Liberals and the Christian Democrats would jointly hold 52 seats in the 150-seat Parliament, short of a majority. But with backing from populist Wilders's Freedom Party, the coalition would control the 76 votes needed to pass laws.

(Reporting by Gilbert Kreijger and Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Michael Roddy)