By Fred Pals -
Aug 27, 2012 6:04 AM ET
Dutch caretaker Prime Minister
Mark Rutte, seeking a return to power after Sept. 12 elections, said
he would block a third aid package for
Greece and defended
austerity as the only way out of
Europe’s debt crisis.
“We’ve helped twice and now it’s up to the Greeks to show
that they want to stay within the euro,” Liberal leader Rutte,
45, said in a debate between the four main party leaders in
Amsterdam last night broadcast on RTL television. “The
Netherlands has been severely hit by the debt crisis and the
solution is to lower taxes, get government finances in order and
make room for investment.”
The Socialists, led by Emile Roemer, have a three-seat lead
over Rutte’s party, known in Dutch as the VVD, with enough
support for 35 of the 150 seats in parliament, according to
a
Maurice de Hond poll published yesterday. The survey gave both
the
Freedom Party and the
Labor Party 18 seats. In an
Ipsos
Synovate poll, published Aug. 24, Rutte’s party led with 34
seats, four more than Roemer’s.
It means a third of Dutch voters back the Socialists, who
oppose more spending cuts and refuse to hand over more
sovereignty to Europe, or the Freedom Party, which seeks an exit
from the European Union and