Friday 29 October 2021
226 days and no end in sight
Netherlands: record coalition negotiations
A new government is also currently being negotiated among our neighbors. The Dutch set a not exactly laudable high. The cause can be found in a political affair. However, there are still a few days left before the world record is achieved.
More than seven months after the parliamentary elections, the Netherlands has still not set a new government and thus a new record. At 226 days (as of Friday, October 29), these are the longest coalition negotiations in the country’s history. And there is no end in sight.
Four parties are currently negotiating the continuation of the previous coalition under the leadership of the right-wing liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The longest coalition negotiations to date to form Rutte’s third cabinet were in 2017 and lasted 225 days. The neighboring country of Belgium set a worldwide record in coalition negotiations. In 2010/2011, the parties there took 541 days until the government was in place.
On March 17th, the Dutch elected a new parliament. The winners were the right-wing liberal VVD von Rutte and the left-wing liberal D66. They had formed a coalition with the Christian Democratic CDA and the ChristenUnie since 2017. But the substantive discussions had only started this week.
At the beginning, Rutte said he was not counting on quick success. The probes had been bogged down for months. After political affairs, which were mainly blamed on Rutte’s VVD and the CDA, D66 wanted a change of leadership and advocated a five-party coalition with the Social Democrats and the Greens. But right-wing liberals and Christian Democrats blocked that. New elections were only prevented because D66 gave up the blockade and agreed to continue the previous coalition.