Bos’s shock resignation cleared the way for Amsterdam’s popular mayor, Job Cohen, to lead the Netherlands’ largest left-leaning party as its candidate for prime minister in the June 9 voting.Bos, 48, cited a desire to spend more time with his wife and three young children. Cohen enjoys national prominence and is often seen as a voice for moderation in the debate over Muslim integration that has dominated Dutch politics for a decade. His policies have been denounced by anti-Islam Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders as too soft on crime and immigration. Recent polls suggest Wilders’ party may emerge from the election as one of the two largest parties, making him a likely factor in coalition negotiations.
Bos led his party for seven years and served as finance minister and deputy prime minister until Labor walked out of the coalition government last month in a dispute over whether to extend the service of the Dutch military in southern Afghanistan. The mission of the 1,600 troops expires in August.
“Our country threatens to become divided along ethnic, cultural and religious lines,” Bos said, endorsing Cohen as a replacement. “We need leadership that unites our country and doesn’t let it fall apart,” he said in his nationally televised announcement. Cohen was Labor’s candidate for premier in the 2003 election when it narrowly lost to Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s Christian Democrat Alliance.
Analysts said that Bos’s departure could signal that Labor may be open to forming a new centrist coalition with the Christian Democrats -- the core of the outgoing Cabinet -- if it meant blocking Wilders’ ascent to power.
