Dutch lawmakers will now have to decide how to press ahead with forming a new coalition government after the collapse of negotiations between Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the Christian Democrats, the centrist D66 party and the Greens.

Edith Schippers, the Liberal health minister, said: “Dear friends, it did not work.

“The substantive differences proved too great.

Mr Rutte described the failure of talks as “unfortunate.”

Green Left leader Jesse Klaver added: “I’m not going to work out who was on which side of the gap in migration. I’d love to form a government, unfortunately it did not work.

“This round is over, we will now see how we go.

The VVD and another conservative party, the Christian Democrats, had been in talks with the centrist D-66 party and the Green Left party, which had never before participated in a government but booked strong gains in the poll.

Mr Rutte's party will now be forced to investigate alternatives following the Dutch election 2017.

The breakdown after 61 days has prompted concerns the nation will have to call another election, which would be welcomed by Geert Wilders who said the failure of the talks was “good news,” and that his Party for Freedom (PVV) was available for coalition negotiations.

But almost all of the other parties have ruled out working with the anti-Islam and anti-EU party.