The voters don't always deal the cards favorably for the coalition system. Compared to a 2 or 3 party system, I think I still prefer the coalitions though as it forces them to negotiate
The voters don't always deal the cards favorably for the coalition system. Compared to a 2 or 3 party system, I think I still prefer the coalitions though as it forces them to negotiate
Yeah, but this time the coalition negotiations were rather dirty. The largest party and therefore most likely prime minister was the most progressive of the centrist parties (D66) and would normally want to work with the moderate left-wing labour party (GLPvdA, now PRO), but the most conservative of the centrist parties (VVD) banned them from negotiations, and preferred one of the right-wing/racist parties (Ja21) instead. If the other two centrist parties really wanted, there could have been a left-center majority of 6 parties, but instead, they let the VVD call the shots, and now it's effectively a VVD minority government.
(VVD had previously also voted to label antifascism "terrorism", which I'm sure must have caused Benjamin Telders, the antifascist they named their scientific bureau after, to spin in his grave.)