• Forum
• SITREP

• Military

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space
• Public Eye

Further Reading

Netherlands - Politics

By the late 20th Century the Christian Democrats had a corporate approach to society while championing family values. Both the Liberal and the List Pim Fortuyn parties are strong advocates of free enterprise and restricted government intervention, as well as law and order. The Labor party has a governmental approach to society and relies on traditional Social Democratic ideas. The smaller political parties include two Protestant parties, the Christian Union and Calvinist Political Party (SGP), with orthodox views on ethical questions but left-leaning views on most other issues, as well as two leftist parties - Green Left and the Socialist Party (SP) - representing views ranging from liberal (as understood in the United States) to neo-Marxist. No party could be qualified as either racist or xenophobe.

From the end of World War II until December 1958, the Netherlands was governed by a series of coalitions built on a Labor-Catholic base. From 1958 to 1994, governments were formed primarily from a center- right coalition of the Christian Democrats and the Liberals, with the social democratic-oriented Labor Party generally in opposition.

The government formed in August 1994, was a three-way "Purple Coalition" of the Labor (PvdA), Liberal (VVD), and Democrats '66 (D'66) parties headed by Prime Minister Kok of the PvdA. The coalition parties hold 92 of the 150 seats in the Second Chamber. The Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) is in opposition with 34 seats. Eight minor parties held the remaining 24 seats.

The elections in May 2002 saw the CDA revitalised as the largest party after eight years in opposition, while the Labour Party performed badly. The party of assassinated populist politician Pim Fortuyn (LPF) also did well in its first election, winning the second largest number of seats. A CDA/Liberal/LPF coalition led by Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende took office in July 2002, but collapsed just three months later.

In subsequent elections in January 2003, the CDA again won the most number of seats, and Labour won back most of the seats it had lost a year earlier to the LPF. Following elections in January 2003, nine political parties in the Second Chamber represented the political spectrum from far left to far right. Among the larger parties are the centrist Christian Democrats (CDA) with 44 seats, the Labor (PvdA) party with 42 seats, the Liberal (read conservative) VVD party with 28 seats, and far-left Socialist Party (SP) with 9 seats and the center-right List Pim Fortuyn (LPF) with 8 seats. After several months of negotiations the CDA and two liberal parties (VVD and D66) reached a coalition agreement. In May 2003 Balkenende's second center-right Government was sworn in, while Labour remained in opposition.

In June 2006 the Government tendered its resignation after the smallest of the three coalition parties, D66, (6/150 seats) withdrew parliamentary support in protest against the Government's handling of the affair concerning the citizenship of Somali born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The Queen subsequently took advice from party leaders and asked former Prime Minister Lubbers to broker a new minority coalition of Christian Democrats (CDA) and Liberals (VVD) in advance of fresh elections in the November 2006.

General elections were held in November 2006. On February 22, 2007, a new center-left coalition government was sworn in, composed of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDA), Social Democrats (PvdA), and left-of-center orthodox Protestant Christian Union (CU) under CDA Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. Given the consensus-based nature of Dutch politics, a change of government does not usually result in any drastic change in foreign or domestic policy. Descriptions of the four main parties follow.

• The Liberal (VVD) Party is "liberal" in the European, rather than American, sense of the word. It thus attaches great importance to private enterprise and the freedom of the individual in political, social, and economic affairs. The VVD is generally seen as the most conservative of the major parties. As of February 2007 it had 22 seats in the Second Chamber.
• The Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) was formed from the merger of the Catholic People's Party and two Protestant parties, the Anti-Revolutionary Party and the Christian-Historical Union. The merger process, begun in the early 1970s to try to stem the tide of losses suffered by religiously based parties, was completed in 1980. The CDA supports free enterprise and holds to the principle that government activity should supplement but not supplant communal action by citizens. On the political spectrum, the CDA sees its philosophy as standing between the "individualism" of the Liberals and the "statism" of the Labor Party. As of February 2007 CDA had 41 seats in the current Second Chamber, more than any other party.
• The Labor Party (PvdA), a classic European Social Democratic party, is left of center. As of February 2007 it had 33 seats in the Second Chamber. Labor's program is based on greater social, political, and economic equality for all citizens, although in recent years the party has begun to debate the role of central government in that process. Although called the Labor Party, it has no formal links to the trade unions.
• The Socialist Party (SP) was founded as a grass root Marxist-Leninist movement in 1972. This working-class leftist alternative to the Labor Party succeeded at being elected to parliament in 1994. At every subsequent election the party grew, and in November 2006 it obtained 25 seats, which made it the third-largest party. The party is fundamentally nationalistic and opposes globalization, the European Union and Dutch participation in international peacekeeping. It also favors cutting defense spending by 40%.