Dutch multiparty governments, a tough nut
The Dutch multipary coalition governments is one of the most difficult things to explain to people that have not lived in the Netherlands for a few years. Even for Dutch people it can be quite hard to understand how decisions are formed. With all that in mind i will now comment on the recent developments since the latest elections 3 months ago. A government has almost been formed.
In the Netherlands coalition alignments are made after the election, not beforehand, although i will explain one exception to this unwritten rule later. All the parties go to the voters with their own stories and promises. Like in any other democratic country all parties try to win as many votes as possible. Because of the proportional representation system the Dutch have, the parties get allotted the same proportion of seats in parliament as the proportion of the votes they received in general election. Because of the diversity of opinions in the Netherlands, no party has received more than 50% of the vote since the tradition restarted after world war II
Many different small groups form a nation
The Netherlands have a history of diversity ever since it became the first republic to allow freedom of religion. Lots of different religions learned to coexist, to set aside their differences amd work together toward a greater common good.
In the last elections of July 9th 2010 the two biggest parties got both just over 20%. A lot of parties received between 5% and 15%. There are ten different parties in parliament right now. The party that was biggest last time, the Christian-Democrats of the CDA have dropped to being the fourth biggest party, surpassed by three other parties. Something which is not very common around the world for the biggest party in a country.
Ever since the mid-nineties the Netherlands have been governed by various three-party coalitions. Elections are followed by months of negotiations ending in a written contract of governance signed by the three parties declaring which actions and reforms they will do while in government. That document is called the “Regeerakkoord”. The exception i talked earlier about is that after successful periods of governance, sometimes coalitions ask the voter to allow them to continue the coalition-government
Current formation of a coalition government
This time, it is slightly different. The Christian democrats that were in power in the previous coalition government with the social-democrats, will form a new government together with the liberal-libertarian-democrats, the VVD the party that is biggest right now. But the two parties together do not have a majority in the parliament.
That is why they have written another contract with the third biggest party, the populist freedom party of Geert Wilders, the PVV. He and his party have been widely accused of racism because his anti-islam dominated speeches and viewpoints.
Contract of tolerance
The document was written alongside the “Regeerakkoord” at the table where the VVD,CDA and PVV negotiated. It is called the “Gedoogakkoord” or contract of tolerance. Besides the promise of voting the VVD-CDA government in power it consists of agreements to vote together on a number of issues, as described in the contract. In this manner the PVV will have some influence in how the Dutch society is governed, but will have no formal responsibilities, since they are not in government themselves. The PVV has not promised to vote along on the measures in the Regeerakkoord.
Will this government now be racist?
No. In the spirit of the Dutch tradition of working together while not agreeing on certain deep spiritual believes, the CDA and VVD will work together with the PVV but will not tolerate any racist or otherwise discriminatory laws or governance.
The worrying thing about this situation is that it both legitimizes the PVV as a party and the anti-islam viewpoints. Also a lot of racists will feel legitimized by the formation of this government, even without the PVV supplying ministers and statesecretaries.
Although this solution is tolerable for the moment, the PVV can almost only benefit from this situation. Any laws that they help pass will be propagated as a victory for the PVV (against islam) and everything that goes awry will be blamed on the minister that is of one of the other parties.
The PVV itself has only been accused of racism and hate speech, but has not been convicted yet. It would be regarded as an infringement of parliamentary power and the principles of trias politicas for any judge to convict a member of parliament for things he said. Therefor, although his anti-islam viewpoints are shared by many racists, we can not yet call him a racist. But we can say with certainty that racists are benefitting hugely from his popularity.
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