Forming a new Dutch coalition will be a hard nut to crack. Our Northern neighbors held parliamentary elections yesterday. Many party heads will be signing the Beatles tune: “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away…”. Because now they’re in trouble. Thanks to the Dutch voters.
The reigning coalition of CDA and VVD lost. The voters clearly want something else. While VVD is out, CDA lost three seats, but is still the largest party in the Netherlands.
Did the opposition win? Not the largest opposition party, the PvdA, which lost ten seats, but remains Holland’s second largest party.
The SP won big, but will probably not be included in a new coalition government. The most obvious coalition is CDA+PvdA+ChristenUnie. That’s two losers plus one (small) winner. Great democracy!
Admittedly, the Dutch voters are not afraid to send signals. The Lijst Pim Fortuyn (LPF), which won big just a few years ago, failed to get even a single seat.
Ten parties got seats in parliament, from the left GroenLinks, to the fascist Partij voor de Vrijheid (PvdV) and of course two seats for the Party for the Animals. The left/right balance tilts slightly to the right, but essentially the electorate is roughly split in two, like in Germany, France and many other countries. Or the U.S., although the differences between Republicans and Democrats are minor.
Elections will only lead to small adjustments, because the electorate itself is split. Which means the voters don’t give a clear signal, and ‘the-powers-that-be’ do as they please. That’s not very different from China, so why do Western politicians always complain that China is not ‘democratic’?
On second thoughts, considering the dog slaughter going on in China, the country would be better off having a Party for the Animals… Here we go, two seats in the National People’s Congress!
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