Dave Tepper has asked me about the different political parties in the Netherlands and how they differ from one another. There are quite a few of them, and, given the Dutch system of proportional representation most of them are represented in parliament. As a result there is always a need to build coalition governments, something that has always struck me as being enormously inefficient. The current governing coalition consists of CDA, VVD and Democrats '66 which makes it a center-right coalition, by Dutch standards.

Here we go, the parties currently represented in parliament, in brackets the number of seats they have, the Dutch Parliament has a total of 150 members.

The Center
The largest party, the CDA or Christian Democrat Union (44) is an amalgamation of a number of parties that are originally faith-based. In practice this is a party of the center and it makes its political moves depending on which way the wind is blowing. That’s why, with the exception of the years 1994-2002 they have always been in power. You can compare this party to the Liberals in Canada, they cater to everyone and by adroitly maneuvering they have a virtual monopoly on power in Holland, and that often includes appointments of provincial governors, mayors and other unelected public offices. I have never and would never ever vote for them precisely because of this powerdance in the middle of the political spectrum. The D’66 or Democrats ‘66 (6) are slightly left of the center but since they are willing to govern with anyone I have put them here in the center. These are left-liberals but since their inception in 1966 they have primarily campaigned on constitutional reform (referendum, elected mayors) but despite the fact that they have been part of governing coalitions many times, very few of their initiatives have ever made it into law. So, it is next to impossible to give them a firm label. Today with six seats they have the balance of power in parliament by helping the CDA and VVD to the majority they need to govern.

The Left
The major party on the left in Holland is the PvdA or Labour (42), the social-democrats, the socialists who have accepted that a socialist workers paradise is not on the cards and are pragmatic in their outlook on society. Like Tony Blair’s Labour Party, they have moved very close to the center in recent years and under their current leader Wouter Bos and previously Wim Kok (Prime-Minister from 1994 to 2002) this party has become electable as they have clearly abandoned tax-and-spend socialism. It gets scarier with the next party, the Socialist Party (9). These are the die-hard socialists who have none of the pragmatism that the PvdA has, they would like to establish a socialist workers paradise and have the government take over whatever can be expropriated and nationalized. The salaries that these parliamentarians earn are deposited in the party pot and each Socialist Party parliamentary member gets a minimum allowance. You get it, I think. Similarly unnerving is GreenLeft (8), an amalgamation of the former pacifist and communist parties. This party has been able to do well, given their “green” message. Yet underlying it all is a group of die-hard leftists that are linked in to the hardcore action groups that do not shy away from violence and destructive behavior to achieve their goals. They are the acceptable face of hard-core leftism. As an example, they were also the party that did not want to send Patriot missiles to Israel during Gulf War I, calling the protection of Israeli citizens against scud missiles an act of aggression. Again, need I say more?

The Right
The major party on the right is the VVD (28), the free-market liberals: low taxes and fiscally conservative, but socially progressive. This is the traditional party for those on the right in Holland and with one exception I have always voted for them when I lived there. Their conservative-right image was badly tarnished when they governed together with the PvdA and Democrats’66 in the years 1994-2002, the so-called Purple Coalition. Fortuyn took advantage of the disarray following the Purple years and during the 2002 and 2003 elections many potential VVD voters threw their votes to the LPF and the CDA. The LPF (8) or List Pim Fortuyn is also libertarian-right, but more so than the VVD although their exact message is hard to nail down following Fortuyn’s death. They won a spectacular 26 seats shortly after Fortuyn was killed (at one point the polls showed them at 35) but they were reduced during the most recent elections following internal conflicts and the inability to provide a comprehensive message. I think they are destined for the scrapheap of history; Fortuyn must be turning in his grave. And then there are the Christian Union and the Dutch Reformed List (together 5). Americans, pay attention, the religious right is well represented in Dutch politics to the extent that there are two separate parties that carry out the message of the bible being the guidebook for society. They are on the right of the political spectrum and socially conservative so you can imagine what their life is like in a country that has embraced abortion, gay marriage and a law that has enacted lawful procedures for mercy deaths. The latter prompts me to admit that your libertarian Peaktalker once voted for one of the Christian Union’s constituent parties during the 1980s but that was a “signal vote”. I was signaling my disgust to society at large over the way practically all other parties seemed to accept mercy deaths as a given and the country was headed towards legislation that would have scared the crap out of anyone over 65 entering a hospital. I do not know whether my signal registered but the debate of mercy deaths got more focused and the Purple Coalition put some legislation in place that seems to be working and the life expectancy in Holland keeps going up, so what can I say?