This morning's papers are dominated by mudslinging and gold; the Dutch cabinet fell in the early hours of Saturday morning and politicians lost no time in hurling bitter accusations and recriminations at one another; everyone accusing everybody else of being behind the demise of Balkenende IV.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's Christian Democrats (CDA) and Wouter Bos' Labour Party failed to reach a compromise on extending the military mission to the Afghan province of Uruzgan, so the 12 Labour ministers and deputy ministers withdrew from the coalition.

The bright spots in the papers come in the form of gold medals for Dutch skaters Ireen Wüst and Mark Tuitert.

The fall of the Dutch cabinet: who's to blame?
Mudslinging: ministers blame each other," bellows the populist De Telegraaf on its front page, while de Volkskrant goes with "Bitter recriminations after the fall of Balkenende IV". AD’s front page headline is in the same vein, "Labour and Christian Democrats continue to argue after cabinet collapses," says the paper.

Trouw and NRC.next both look ahead; "Parliamentary elections some time after 19 May," writes Trouw while NRC.next has the very blunt "The campaign has started" emblazoned across its front page.

Trouw reports that all the opposition parties lay the blame for the collapse of the coalition squarely on the Christian Democrat prime minister and his Labour deputy prime minister Wouter Bos. The protestant paper quotes several opposition leaders, here’s a selection of the juiciest: "The cabinet made an unbelievable mess of things," sneers VVD leader Mark Rutte; D66 leader Alexander Pechtold tells the paper, "The Netherlands has lost three years because of this cabinet's lack of ambition," and Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders says, "This was the worst cabinet we've ever had. It's fallen, so get the flags out and celebrate".

After the election: what will the new coalition look like?
AD and de Volkskrant devote several pages to predicting the makeup of the next government: AD writes, "The new coalition is one big puzzle," and de Volkskrant gloomily predicts, "The most difficult cabinet formation ever".

AD interviews opinion pollster Maurice de Hond who ran a poll a few hours after the cabinet crashed and burned. The paper writes, "The latest poll reveals that no logical combination is possible," and Mr de Hond says, "The CDA has got a gigantic problem".

AD writes that the problem – for all the parties - comes in the form of the extreme right-wing Freedom Party; according to the poll, the CDA will remain the largest party, but the Freedom Party will be a close second and the various other parties stand to either lose or gain voters according to whether and not they will countenance governing with Mr Wilders' anti-immigration party.

De Volkskrant writes, "Dutch voters have never been so divided. It will take at least four parties to form a majority coalition". The left-wing paper weighs up the possible combinations and wonders "Left, right or a rainbow coalition?"

De Telegraaf conducted its own poll and unsurprisingly, readers of the populist broadsheet voted overwhelmingly in favour of a right-wing coalition. The paper also has an exclusive with its favourite political son: Geert tells the paper that he "is prepared to compromise on any issue except raising the retirement age".

Whether the other parties are prepared to dance to Mr Wilders’ anti-Islam tune in order to govern is not yet clear although D66 and Labour have both ruled out working with him.

What is clear is that Mr Wilders is attempting to portray himself as a reasonable and statesman-like. The attempt fails. 

For sale: Camp Holland in Uruzgan
The fall of the cabinet will have enormous repercussions and not only here at home - the Netherlands is experiencing its worst economic crisis since the 1930s and the country needs a stable, decisive government in order to deal with the myriad of problems facing it - but also for people in the Afghan province of Uruzgan. Who will replace the Dutch forces when they withdraw?

"For sale: 1600 armoured containers," writes de Volkskrant, adding, "withdrawing troops is simple enough but what are they going to do with all that equipment?"

AD headlines "For sale: Camp Holland," adding, "The Taliban believe we're really feeble and they're laughing themselves silly". The paper reports that the entire camp is up for sale and is worth millions of euros although the defence ministry has refused to name the price.

Olympic gold for Dutch skaters
De Telegraaf has a photograph of a jubilant Ireen Wüst just after she crossed the finish line to take gold in the 1,500 metres and a smaller photo of Mark Tuitert celebrating his victory in the men's 1500 metres.

AD, de Volkskrant, Trouw and NRC.next all print photos of the victorious skaters. The best photo is in Trouw: Tuitert is shown skating his victory lap with the most beautiful, serene smile on his face. He tells the paper "this is what I've been dreaming about".