Spotlight on Dutch coalition

The trial of Geert Wilders, the leader of the Freedom Party in the Netherlands, is being closely watched as the anti-Islamist politician has emerged as the kingmaker of Dutch politics. His party recently entered into a parliamentary agreement with two centre-right parties in order to form a government.

Wilders went on trial last Monday accused of inciting hatred towards Muslims by branding Islam a “fascist ideology” and by producing an anti-Islamic film called Fitna.

The Dutch general election in June produced a fragmented Parliament with no easy coalition options, and gains were made by the centre-right Liberal VVD Party, which made the state of the economy the central platform of its campaign, and the right wing Freedom Party, which shows that immigration is a major concern of the electorate. Wilders had campaigned to stop the “Islamisation of the Netherlands”.

The ruling Christian Democrats did very badly and suffered strong losses, probably due to the country’s deficit, which is expected to reach about six per cent this year, and losses were also made by the Labour Party and the Socialist Party. So the trend was more or less towards the right, even though the social liberal party, the D66, made substantial gains.

The election was held because the Labour Party in Februarywithdrew from the governing coalition in protest over plans to extend the tour of duty of Dutch troops in Afghanistan, leaving a minority caretaker Christian Democratic and Christian Union administration in place. The troops left anyway, so Labour’s exit from the government seemed futile.

An agreement to form a stable government has now been reached, almost four months after the election – not unusual for Dutch coalition politics – and the new administration will consist of ministers from the Liberal VVD Party, which until now has been in opposition, as well as the Christian Democrats, and will be supported in Parliament by the right-wing Freedom Party.

VVD leader Mark Rutte is now expected to become Prime Minister, replacing the Christian Democrat Jan Peter Balkenende, who has been in office since 2002 and has led four coalition governments.

So, while the Freedom Party will not be part of the ruling coalition, it has formed a pact with government to support it in Parliament, in return for a number of concessions, particularly on immigration.

The coalition agreement, for example, includes a pledge to ban the full Islamic veil, or burka, as well as a ban on headscarves for police and justice ministry

officials. The Netherlands now joins France and Belgium in moving to ban the burka in public places.

The new government also intends to remove immigrants’ right to reside in the Netherlands if they refuse to take Dutch language lessons. Furthermore, those applying for Dutch nationality will receive temporary citizenship for five years which can be provoked if they commit serious crimes.

A tightening of asylum measures, such as an end to the policy of automatically treating nationals of some countries as refugees, is also being proposed, although this may be questionable under EU law.

The government’s economic policy also shows a shift towards the right. The coalition has agreed to spending cuts of €18 billion over the next four years, the number of MPs will be cut by a third, the police force will be increased and the retirement age will be increased by one year to 66 by 2020.

Rutte told the press recently: “The Cabinet aims to see a stronger Netherlands coming out of the recession. We want to give back the Netherlands to the hard-working citizen.”

A week ago Christian Democrat party members voted in favour of the new parliamentary pact, paving the way for the first minority government in the Netherlands since World War II. Many Christian Democrats had, in fact, expressed serious reservations about joining forces with the Freedom Party, but the party nevertheless voted to back the pact by a two-to-one margin. Maxime Verhagen, the new leader of the Christian Democrats, told wavering party members: “We can be the binding factor in a society that is polarising.”

Last Monday the coalition deal was approved by all 21 Christian Democratic MPs, even though two dissent legislators had originally threatened to vote against as they felt uncomfortable about the Freedom Party. In the end, however, they were convinced to back the new government.

Of course, the fact that the three-party parliamentary alliance only has a one-seat majority will mean that the coalition will be a fragile one. Implementing harsh budget cuts will not be easy and the government will be at the mercy of even the smallest of parliamentary rebellions.

Furthermore, a guilty verdict in the Wilders trial could be very embarrassing for the new government, and could persuade some Christian Democrats to withdraw their support for it.

The last time a right-wing party was in government in the Netherlands – the Pim Fortuyn party following the 2002 election – the coalition collapsed after just 86 days. Will the same thing happen again?

The difference then was that the Pim Fortuyn party actually had Cabinet seats. In today’s scenario a centre-right coalition government has the parliamentary support of a right-wing party.

A similar situation exists in Denmark, and this arrangement has so far lasted nine years, so I don’t think we can write off the coalition just yet.