The Scene Since September

This post is a few months late, so there’s quite a bit to catch up on. Hence, I’ll summarise as much as possible, and maybe one day I can post about events as they happen. To recap my last post: negotiations between VVD, CDA and PVV had just collapsed when Ab Klink, former CDA minister and key coalition negotiator, wrote a letter to CDA parliamentary leader Maxime Verhagen, and party chairperson Henk Bleker, declaring that he could no longer take part in any negotiations with the PVV due to his opposition to such an outcome. When the letter became public it became clear that two other CDA MPs, Kathleen Ferrier and Ad Koppejan, backed Klink’s position. The PVV withdrew from negotiations at this point.

Only a few days (7 September) after the PVV withdrew from negotiations with VVD and CDA, Klink resigned from parliament. The circumstances surrounding this decision suggest that he was under a lot of pressure from party colleagues to change his tune or leave. With Klink out of the way, the PVV indicated its willingness to enter talks again. The CDA MPs met behind closed doors and agreed to continue negotiations, keeping in mind that a special congress of CDA members could still veto any coalition agreement.

By the end of September the governing accord was complete and approved by the VVD, PVV and CDA MPs — unanimously by the first two, with an “overwhelming majority” by the CDA, suggesting that Ferrier and Koppejan voted against. The accord established a minority government: only VVD and CDA would have positions in cabinet, while the PVV would provide “tolerance”. This means that the PVV will not support any no-confidence motions from the opposition parties provided that the question at hand has to do with the governing accord.

Nevertheless, it all came down to the CDA congress on 2 October. Internal polls suggested 80% of attendees would vote for cooperation with the PVV, but on the day only 68% supported this course of action. While still a clear mandate for the CDA to enter into government, Ferrier and Koppejan said they were heartened by the level of support for their position. In any event, the CDA MPs voted to enter into a coalition government with the VVD the next week, and the new cabinet was sworn in on 14 October 2010. For those interested in the details of who the ministers are, click here.

The internal fallout of this new coalition within the CDA and VVD ranks has been surprisingly muted. Former CDA Prime Minister Dries van Agt initially threatened to resign from the CDA and join D66 or GroenLinks if his party went into a coalition with PVV, but later changed his mind and remains a compliant member of the party. Former VVD cabinet member Gijs de Vries was less reluctant to follow-up on his threats: he resigned from the VVD and applied to join D66, saying that it was not in the national interest to reward a party with power which is internally undemocratic (Geert Wilders is the only member of the PVV and makes all its key decisions) and fosters xenophobia and discrimination. It is unclear how many rank-and-file members have left the two parties.

Since then there have been a few minor incidents, the most telling one was the case of CDA cabinet member Marlies Veldhuijzen van Zanten-Hyllner, who has a Swedish passport as well as a Dutch one. The PVV, which is opposed to dual-nationalities, insisted that she should renounce her Swedish citizenship. Unsurprisingly, no other party in parliament thought this was a particularly good idea, although it did expose some hypocrisy on the part of the VVD, who had demanded that former PvdA minister Nebahat Albayrak give up her Turkish passport when she was sworn in to cabinet. Rutte countered that while Turkey made certain demands of their citizens (including national service), Sweden did not. Either way, both Albayrak and Veldhuijzen van Zanten-Hyllner remain in parliament and retain their dual-nationality status.

The new government, to be known henceforth as Rutte-I, has already signalled a number of controversial changes it wants to make. They include:

* Reducing the number of elected officials across the country and all levels of government. Fewer councillors, members of provincial parliaments, and national MPs. The Tweede Kamer will be reduced from 150 MPs to 100, and the Eerste Kamer from 75 Senators to 50.
* More new nuclear power stations will be built (NL currently has one, in the town of Borssele).
* Small cafes (less than 70 square metres in area) will be exempted from smoking bans.
* The speed limit on highways will be increased to 130km/h.
* An expansion of CCTV and the introduction of stop-and-search powers.
* A ban on the burqua and similar items of clothing.
* A watering-down of labour laws to allow for more “flexibility” in workplace agreements.

However, the problem with this is that the government does not have a majority in the Eerste Kamer, which can block bills. It very rarely does this, but any time it does usually results in the government plunging into crisis. The Eerste Kamer is indirectly elected. On 2 March, the Dutch will go to the polls to elect members to the twelve provincial parliaments. These MPs will then elect the Eerste Kamer. Unsurprisingly, they usually follow party lines, and therefore this government’s first test will be to see if they can achieve a majority in the Eerste Kamer as well. Current polls suggest this is not unrealistic, but it will depend on to what extent people vote for national issues rather than provincial ones.

Naturally, I’ll be liveblogging the results of the provincial elections. Coverage starts at 20:00 GMT on Wednesday 2 March.

In other news, GroenLinks has a new parliamentary leader after Femke Halsema decided to call it quits after almost 13 years as an MP, 8 of which as parliamentary leader. While Halsema had clearly stated before the elections that this would be her last term, many have been surprised by her early exit. Jolande Sap, who was second on the party’s list at the national elections, has been elected new parliamentary leader by the other MPs. While speculation about reasons for resignation is often overdone, one logical explanation is that Halsema wished to give her successor enough time to build up a stronger national profile, and what better time to do this than during an election campaign? The inherent instability of the current government means that it is highly unlikely that the next national elections will be as far away as 2014. With Halsema’s departure, only Ineke van Gent remains from the “class of ’98″, the election at which GroenLinks achieved its best result of 11 seats.

It is interesting to note that parliamentary careers in the Netherlands are often relatively short when compared to other Western countries, especially in recent decades. For example, since 1988 there has only been one MP to celebrate 25 years in parliament — former SGP leader Bas van der Vlies. Many MPs will have voluntarily left long before they’ve served more than a few terms. In comparison to Australia, the current Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were first elected to the House of Representatives in 1998 and 1994 respectively, and show absolutely no sign of leaving yet.

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