The Netherlands is in a state of limbo - six weeks on from the general elections the latest attempts to form a coalition government have failed. Ex-prime minister and former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers has now been appointed by the Queen as the next man to try and forge a coalition.

He’ll certainly need all his diplomatic skills as the 9 June result threw up such an array of parties in parliament that forming a cabinet is a nightmare.

Pending issues
In the meantime the country is on hold. No fewer than 300 issues are in the pending tray.

Ten of the biggest decisions not being made:

1. Cuts in government spending - billions of cuts are needed to balance the books in the wake of the economic crisis and in the face of a greying population. The parties trying to forge a coalition have been struggling over this issue more than over anything else. The centre-right liberals want to chop 18 billion. Other parties are less drastic and say around 12 billion has to be saved in the next five years. All agree action is needed, but nothing will happen until the new government is formed.

2. Raising the pension age - plans to have people working up to the age of 67 are all aimed at tackling the growing cost of an ageing population.

3. The purchase of a second test plane as part of the Joint Strike Fighter project - the plane is supposed to replace the current military F-16s.

4. Pay as you go road tax - a highly controversial plan to make motorists pay for the kilometres they drive. The aim is to reduce the number of traffic jams in the Netherlands.

5. Limiting redundancy payments - these are currently generous in the Netherlands.

6. Changing the rules surrounding tax breaks on mortgages for home owners - uncertainty over this has frozen the housing market.

7. New tougher rules for the supervision of the financial markets – proposed in the wake of the financial crisis.

8. The expansion of Amsterdam International Airport – Schiphol.

9. Major changes to policing - plans to have a national force rather than the current regional ones.

10. Changes to the law governing payment for nursing homes, care homes, psychiatric institutions and care for the handicapped - known in the Netherlands as the AWBZ. Financially difficult to maintain in its current form.

The list of topics on hold is mind-boggling and diverse and although not all of them might seem equally serious - one even refers to the treatment of animals in circuses – they need to be dealt with. So it’s now up to Ruud Lubbers to come up with a coalition that can handle this wide range of issues.

Forming a coalition
The coalition is so difficult to form this time round as the votes were evenly split and three parties or more are needed to form a majority in the 150-seat parliament.

The centre-right liberal VVD Party was the election winner with 31 seats, only one more than the Labour Party, PvdA, but in the third place was the right wing populist Freedom Party, PVV, with 24 seats. Led by Geert Wilders this party’s radical views on Islam are making it difficult for other parties to form a coalition with them.

Click here to read more