Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has denied that he is in the race for a top EU job. He called the rumours ‘nonsense’ and confirmed that he would be staying on as PM. He was reacting to a report in the newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad that his own CDA party has agreed that Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen would take over as Prime Minister. Verhagen called the rumours ‘Hague party games’.

The rumours have been doing the rounds in The Hague and Brussels for months. Parliament demanded a guarantee that Balkenende would not be leaving, but the PM said he could not give this, pointing out that, he could, for example, be taken into hospital. To the great pleasure of the Prime Minister, maverick politician Geert Wilders asked whether he would be staying on. Balkenende pointed out that, in the past, Wilders had consistently called for his resignation. ‘And now you’re asking me not to go’. However, Wilders followed this by proposing a motion of no confidence and calling for new elections.
 

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