AMSTERDAM, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Seven members of the Netherlands’ far-right Freedom Party led by Geert Wilders have split from the party’s 26-member faction in parliament and will form their own group, citing dissatisfaction with his leadership, Wilders and the lawmakers said on Tuesday.
The split is the most serious challenge to Wilders’ control over his party since its foundation in 2006.
Wilders told reporters in The Hague that the seven “thought Freedom should be more constructive and work together with the new governing coalition instead of conducting hard opposition.”
“We’re not planning to do that.” He said his party would survive the crisis.
The split comes as the centrist, pro-EU D66 party, which won the election last October, is in talks to form a minority government in coalition with the conservative Christian Democrats and the right-wing VVD.
Freedom finished in a close second place in the election, but the split means that Labour will now be the largest opposition party.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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