EU climate chief Frans Timmermans says he wants to lead centre-left combined bloc in Dutch elections

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European Union climate chief Frans Timmermans said on Thursday that he wanted to run a combined campaign by two centre-left parties joining forces ahead of the Dutch general elections in late November.

Timmermans is vice-president of the EU's executive committee responsible for climate policy. He told Dutch national broadcaster NOS he had stood as a candidate to lead the Labor Party and the Green Left in the election. The parties agreed on Monday to form a united front on the left of the splintered Dutch political landscape.

Timmermans is a member of the Labor Party and a former foreign minister. He says he wants to be the next Dutch prime minister and aims to unite the increasingly polarized nation.

"I think it's time for us in the Netherlands to come together again instead of apart. The fragmentation of politics must be fought," he said. "We have huge challenges - the climate crisis, nature is out of shape. But also a war on Europe's borders."

He also wants to eradicate inequalities in Dutch society.

"We can only solve all of this if we work hand in hand and if we are less divided than we have been in recent years," he said. is still presented.

Snap elections have been called. earlier this month, when the longest-serving Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, and his four-party coalition resigned after failing to reach an agreement on how to curb migration.

Rutte, who has led four coalition governments, announced after his resignation that he would quit politics following the installation of a new coalition following the November 22 election. Negotiations to broker a new coalition could take months.