BREAKING/FUCK YEAH Dutch Cabinet Formation Broke Down!!!

[Triple Zero]

whooooooooo, formation negotiations of our government broke down. second man christian party Ab Klink wrote a letter this week with severe doubts to the idea of making a majority coalition with the VVD+CDA with "support" from PVV (Geert Wilders). two other seats in the CDA agree with him, and now Geert is throwing a hissy fit that he doesn't to play anymore cause there is no trust. (well ok Klink's letter was rather personal hehehe)

whatever.

GEERT WILDERS IS OUT OF THE SUPPORT-MAJORITY-COALITION-THING

what's going to happen now is rather unclear, but better than Wilders semi-in the majority formation.

(info for people wondering wtf a formation is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_cabinet_formation )

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Not to distract from the OP, but the name Ab Klink is awesome. Makes me think of a belly bounce, but with two ripped guys.
Clink!

[Triple Zero]

hehehe "Ab" is short for "Albert". "Klink" is a name related to some old profession, blacksmith or carpenter or something like that.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

hehehe "Ab" is short for "Albert". "Klink" is a name related to some old profession, blacksmith or carpenter or something like that.

Makes sense. A hammer on an anvil makes a clink sound.

[LMNO]

Wait, Amsterdamovia has a government?

[Triple Zero]

well, once the parties sort out who gets to have the party and who's not invited, we will!

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I saw somehting on Wilder in the news today- apparently there's an Australian imam calling for his beheading, which, is really just playing into Wilder's opinions.

[Cain]

At least one European country is resisting this trend to mainstreaming neofascism then.  Nice to see.

Now we just have to get the Dutch to "liberate" France and Italy...

[Placid Dingo]

Do you think the whole 'no two parties' thing works over there? Like better than the two party system?

Australia's possible on the verge of moving towards this design (Depending on how the next four years play out)

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Do you think the whole 'no two parties' thing works over there? Like better than the two party system?

Australia's possible on the verge of moving towards this design (Depending on how the next four years play out)

Two party systems are not a very good option anywhere. It assumes that people's political opinions are binary and if you think one way on one issue, then you definitely have this specific opinion on an unrelated issue. I'd like to see a coalition multiparty system implemented in the US, but I think it's too complicated for your average American to understand, since the way things are now are too complicated for them to understand.

[Placid Dingo]

Do you think the whole 'no two parties' thing works over there? Like better than the two party system?

Australia's possible on the verge of moving towards this design (Depending on how the next four years play out)

Two party systems are not a very good option anywhere. It assumes that people's political opinions are binary and if you think one way on one issue, then you definitely have this specific opinion on an unrelated issue. I'd like to see a coalition multiparty system implemented in the US, but I think it's too complicated for your average American to understand, since the way things are now are too complicated for them to understand.

Well this current situation was accidental here.

[Cain]

Same in the UK.  Be interesting to see if it resolves itself.  I know lots of people are disenchanted with the Liberal Democrats (the junior partner of the coalition government) right now, but they're equally disenchanted with Labour and the Tories, or else they wouldn't be Lib Dem voters.

My hope is that they will filter off to even crazier minor parties (UKIP or the Libertarian Party for the Neo-liberals, Greens and SWP for the social liberals/ex-Labourites) and fracture the political system even further.

[Triple Zero]

BTW I bet nobody is going to pay any attention anymore to this little bleached blonde half-indonesian man screaming about the "Mosque" when he gets there on 9/11.

Well, I mean nobody from NL will care anymore, since bitching from the opposition is apparently the only thing he can do.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

BTW I bet nobody is going to pay any attention anymore to this little bleached blonde half-indonesian man screaming about the "Mosque" when he gets there on 9/11.

Well, I mean nobody from NL will care anymore, since bitching from the opposition is apparently the only thing he can do.

The American Right will probably pay some attention and go "See? Even them Librul Yerupeens think its a bad idea."

[Triple Zero]

well, the dude that wrote the letter resigned yesterday (kinda makes sense, he caused a lot of strife in the christiandemocrats) and no more than a day later Wilders let Rutte know he's willing to talk again now that the "main hurdle" / "dissident" in the CDA is gone. (Rutte belongs to the VVD, conservative liberals, other largest party, he'll probably be the next prime minister)



...

except this all happened during the rounds when our Queen is exerting pretty much the only official bit of political power she still has, which is appointing the person that will arrange the informal talks between the parties in the first stages of coalition building, called the "informateur", yeah it's pretty indirect. informally, the party leaders are also having talks with the Queen, in two sittings, first the biggest ones, and then the rest. Usually this matters little, as the parties, aided by the "formateur" will figure out the largest majority coalition that can come up with a coalition agreement and that's it. But if the Queen really wants to she probably can pull a bunch of clever strings and whatnot to maybe shift the scales slightly one way or the other.
And since she absolutely loathes Geert Wilders (well, he is a fucking creep) you can bet she is trying her utter best to influence things to get a coalition, any coalition that doesn't involve the PVV. It's a public secret that her political view tends somewhat more towards the left, being Labour, the Christian Democrats (good buddies with former prime minister Balkenende) and even the Greens.

It's not exactly democratic, but just like I was rooting for the fucking Christian Democrats a week ago to get their heads checked, it might be either this final royal safety net, or getting royally screwed

But right now all the other parties (that weren't part of this coalition) are up in arms and shouting that Rutte (VVD) has cut corners in the process, by changing course so quickly, sitting around the table with Wilders (PVV) again talking actual coalition talks where before they didn't want to, while the Queen is still doing her rounds of consultation.

And they too are sort of right. Even though they're obviously grasping straws to complain about anything involving Wilders, it also makes today's consultation rounds rather meaningless.

...

Actually this is the moment where I can sit back and enjoy the hilarious drama that is going to unfold now

I wonder, it's a risky bet, but maybe it would be good if they made the CDA+VVD+PVV coalition now anyway. It will be under such explosive pressure from inside as well as outside, I wouldn't give it a very long time before it fell. Maybe a few months. That would probably damage Wilders' reputation (he tried, did his utter best, got the chance and blew it) way more than if we got another coalition that grudgingly makes an agreement just to exclude teh PVV, while PVV sits grinning in the opposition benches, where it feels home, as they can complain and bitch and moan without actually making any propositions or amendments (really if you look at their history, it's pretty much all talk and no concrete proposals).