A recent RTL Nieuwspanel survey shows that 25 percent of Dutch voters have lost confidence in every political party. This distrust is especially strong among those who voted for Nieuw Sociaal Contract (NSC), with 32 percent expressing no trust, as well as voters for BBB (28 percent) and PVV (26 percent).
Wait what? Where do those hopes come from?
I figured at least a couple of the PVV voters are so disillusioned they’ll just not vote this time.
On the one hand I’m not sure if that’s such good news (I don’t like the PVV, but I do think it’s important that citizens are involved in how the country is governed), and on the other hand I’m not even sure that it’s true. They’re still polling strong.
They won’t rule any more, that’s true, but they’ll make it harder to former a stable government, and still have strong influence on the policy that does get enacted. Compared to e.g. any election before the last one, I see no signs that make me particularly hopeful.
Political options aren’t ruined by two-party system, so there’s flexibility.
Options and diversity generally results in progress and balance.
Well… We’ve had this system for some time now and we can’t really say our government is super stable lately. In fact, the splintering pretty much makes it impossible to set a clear course. Plus, most parties make hot button issues their hill to die on so they’ll just pull ultimatums all the time and threaten to blow up the government if they don’t get what they want. Even if the Algemene Rekenkamer tells everyone that their plans are inexecutable.