It's taken nearly two tortuous months, but all the papers agree the Dutch coalition talks are nearing a successful conclusion. The would-be government leaders will present the plans to their parties today says Trouw and the rest of the dailies... except for AD, "or tomorrow" it squeaks.

Trouw says the party factions will be studying the small print of the agreement, over the next few days, for a right-wing government of the conservative VVD and the CDA Christian Democrats with parliamentary support from the anti-Islamic Freedom Party (PVV). The plans will be only be made public on Thursday at the earliest believes the paper.

Despite the fact that, even yesterday, those involved in the talks were refusing to give anything away, Trouw tells us that negotiations continued to be intense right up to the last moment. The talks only finished at 11:30 pm yesterday and will be resumed again today to thrash out the last details.

The paper says proposed savings in health care and social welfare are proving most contentious. It believes the magic figure of 18 billion euros in cuts by 2015 will not quite be reached in the final coalition accord.

When asked for confirmation that the coalition talks were on the home stretch, CDA leader Maxime Verhagen would only tell AD that "you can never be sure of that, can you?"

Arson targets immigrant community?
Most of today's dailies cover the fires which broke out at churches run by the Moluccan-Dutch communities in three towns in the northeast of the Netherlands. The churches in Hoogeveen and in Nijverdal were badly damaged by the blazes. The one in Assen escaped damage as a suspected arson attempt failed.

De Telegraaf runs a front-page photograph of the devastation in Hoogeveen: an official in a helmet, his feet buried in rubble, surveys the collapsed roof and a gaping hole in the wall of the building. The paper tells its mass readership that speculation is rife in the Moluccan community about who is to blame for the fires.

The first suspicions are that the attacks are connected with the trouble between the Moluccan and Moroccan groups not so far away in Culemborg in the centre of the country. Tensions between the two groups exploded in violence earlier this year when there were street clashes between youths from the two communities and a number of other incidents.

However, the paper points out there are other suspects within the Moluccan community itself. Many are said to be angry with a Moluccan organisation which has lost money through bad investments. A bewildered church worker is sure it was arson: "The fire was started from outside - in the prayer area. That's the very place where there's no electricity."

Amsterdam gets tough on squatters
The news has come as a bombshell: Amsterdam, the squatters' capital, plans to clear out its 200 squats. Well, clear them out eventually, explains nrc.next. Squatting becomes a crime on 1 October. In the past, it was a minor misdemeanour. Now, anyone found in a squat when it is emptied by police will be arrested and face a maximum two-year prison term.

However, Amsterdam's police resources are limited and only high priority squats will be tackled to begin with. First on the list will be premises which were occupied at the time they were squatted or where the squatters are causing nuisance locally.

Only last week, Sjoerd, a 25-year-old squatter confidently told the paper: "The council doesn't have the cash to come along here every week with a helicopter and water canon". Other major cities seem to agree with him and have announced that they won't be enforcing the new law, at least, not for the time being.

On Sunday, Amsterdam squatters weren't shy of publicity when they took over the old headquarters of the capital's fire service. Now, however, various squatters' blogs are worriedly reporting that police will clear the building as early as Friday. Nrc.next asks if we're in for a repeat of the capital's 1980 squatters' riots.

Public service broadcasting cuts
Here in Hilversum, the home of Dutch broadcasting, the top story in today's de Volkskrant can be guaranteed to hit a nerve. In an exclusive piece, the chairman of the board of the Dutch public service broadcasters tries to get his oar in before the new government's expected swingeing cuts.

With rumours that the broadcasting budget is set to be slashed by 100 million euros, Henk Hagoort says public service television will have to make some painful choices. Sport and light entertainment should be ditched in favour of programmes of more "public worth". Coverage of the Dutch Premier League and the Champions League could be left to commercial stations as could many popular shows, he believes.

He is also advocating reducing the number of public service broadcasting organisations from 22 to just seven or eight. He says Hilversum is willing to make hard choices but that quality programming shouldn't suffer. This does not mean the politicians will have a free hand. "We won't allow the government to dictate details of how and where we have to make savings."

Royal U-turn on Twitter
Finally, both De Telegraaf and Trouw devote part of their front pages to the fact that the royal family opened a twitter account this weekend. Both remind us that Queen Beatrix used her Christmas message last year to warn that the internet (and those "quick short messages") could limit real communication between people.

"Christmas message was not against twitter, but for love of one's neighbour", said a royal tweet. "This message was really from the queen herself," added the government information service.