Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende announced that the second largest party in his three-party alliance is quitting, ending what had always been an uneasy partnership.
"Where there is no trust, it is difficult to work together. There is no road along which this cabinet can go further," Balkenende said.
Balkenende made no mention of elections as he spoke to reporters after a marathon 16-hour Cabinet meeting in The Hague that ended close to dawn. However, the resignation of the Labor Party
- which has demanded the country stick to a scheduled withdrawal from southern Afghanistan
- leaves his government with just 47 seats in the 150-member parliament.
With no viable prospects for other coalitions, an early election is expected. By law it must be held within 83 days and by custom it is on a Wednesday, so the vote is likely May 11.
Balkenende, 53, said his center-right Christian Democratic Alliance would continue in office with the small Christian Union. His minority cabinet would continue as a caretaker government until a new coalition is formed, which could take many months of political bargaining following an election.
Dutch soldiers have been deployed since 2006 in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan on a two-year stint that was extended until next August.
Balkenende's party wanted to keep a trimmed-down military presence in the restive province, where 21 Dutch soldiers have been killed, but Labor was adamant that the Dutch troops leave Uruzgan as scheduled.
"A plan was agreed to when our soldiers went to Afghanistan," said Labor Party leader Wouter Bos. "Our partners in the government didn't want to stick to that plan, and on the basis of their refusal, we have decided to resign."
The Dutch debate comes as opinion polls in many troop-providing European countries indicate growing public opposition to sending more soldiers to Afghanistan amid a global financial crisis and shrinking defense budgets.
Any Dutch withdrawal would be a worrying sign for NATO, which has struggled to raise the 10,000 additional troops that its top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has demanded to accompany the 30,000 American reinforcements being deployed there.
The Dutch government split came after weeks of tension between Balkenende and Bos, the finance minister, mainly over Afghanistan and the government's earlier political support for the war in Iraq.
Balkenende's allies argued that a pullout from Afghanistan would damage the Netherlands' reputation as a nation that carries more than its weight in international peacekeeping missions, and could encourage other wavering countries to also withdraw.
"The future of the mission of our soldiers in Afghanistan will now be in the hands of the new Cabinet," said Deputy Defense Minister Jack de Vries.
