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So, with all the citations from Romeny and all talk about the US elections, let's talk about the Dutch elections wich have happened around a week ago!
So, let's explain something 'bout how it works. The Dutch parlement has 150 'seats' wich get divided by the political groups here. There are quite a lot of them instead of just 2 or 3. The government is then formed out of some of these groups. As these create new laws and all that, they need to hve more then 75 seats to form a government. So far the government has mainly been liberal, they getting nearly always the most votes. This time, however, it's getting more interesting. Around half of the votes went to liberal parties, and the other half to the socialists. So, who will become the new president of the Netherlands? Let's discuss!



More interesting then Mitt Romney's mistakes anyways

What does "liberal" mean in Holland?

In the UK it means fairly centrist, though the whole of politics has been moving to the right for several decades, so the Liberals here are now more left wing than the Labour (socialist) party.

Liberals here are right.

That is interesting because I think in most countries the right wing has been on a gradual rise for decades.

Perhaps the current economic crisis is forcing people back to socialism (or fascism in some cases. I don't suppose the Dutch are very keen on fascism, though.)

As long as the winner's in favor of keeping marijuana legal and the red light districts humming, I am fine with him, whoever he turns out to be.

That's essentially the extent of my knowledge of the Dutch. That and dikes.

 Seaward wrote:
As long as the winner's in favor of keeping marijuana legal and the red light districts humming, I am fine with him, whoever he turns out to be.

That's essentially the extent of my knowledge of the Dutch. That and dikes.

How about the deltaworks?
And Geert Wilders?

I thought socialists were liberal

Unless from our point of view European politics is Liberal and VERY Liberal(Socilists)


Socialisim is the extreme of the Liberal spectrum here. Facisim is the extreme end of the conservative spectrum. And of course neither of our parties are actually 100% liberal or conservative. Democrats are economically conservative, Republicans are economically liberal.

I do wish we had legitimate 3rd and 4th parties here. Perhaps we're moving in that direction. It would help force the Reps and Dems to compromise with each other. Maybe. One would hope.

We actually have tons of political parties, none of the them except the Reps and Dems ever make it onto the national stage because their votes are too few.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni3LJkUvN3U&feature=player_detailpage

The Nazi party has a rally every so often in DC IIRC.

 thenoobbomb wrote:

 Seaward wrote:
As long as the winner's in favor of keeping marijuana legal and the red light districts humming, I am fine with him, whoever he turns out to be.

That's essentially the extent of my knowledge of the Dutch. That and dikes.

How about the deltaworks?
And Geert Wilders?

Or cheese? And Heineken. Which is actually one of the shittiest Dutch beers you can get, but everyone seems to know it, so there ya have it.
And don't forget clogs and tulips. Or New York, and a bout a gazillion little villages in Texas.

OK, stereotype time is over, methinks.
So, anyway, I kind missed the elections, being stuck in Africa and whatnot. But are the VVD and the PvdA really going to run the government together?
I mean, that'd be almost the Dutch version of Democrats and Republicans deciding that since they both have nearly 50% of the votes they should rule together. They're pretty much the direct opposites among the larger parties now that the CDA is on its long-overdue decline.
I could easily see PvdA and SP running together; though that'd probably kill the economy, at least they're not dividided on key issues.

The PvdA and VVD are indeed trying to form the government, and maybe the CDA, who have lost wavy to many seats, may join in too (again..). A left government consisting of PvdA and SP might happen, but SP's seats remained the same.

 Grey Templar wrote:
We actually have tons of political parties, none of the them except the Reps and Dems ever make it onto the national stage because their votes are too few.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni3LJkUvN3U&feature=player_detailpage

The Nazi party has a rally every so often in DC IIRC.

Hence my use of the term "Legitimate".

Those party's influence are laughable, at best.

The Green Party and Libertarian Party have won elections in the past(local elections) so i would call them legitimate.

Of course this is off topic, lets talk about Dutch politics

 Kilkrazy wrote:
That is interesting because I think in most countries the right wing has been on a gradual rise for decades.

Perhaps the current economic crisis is forcing people back to socialism (or fascism in some cases. I don't suppose the Dutch are very keen on fascism, though.)

The PVV, while not advertised as fascists, kinda fits the bill. Scapegoating xenophobic populists. I'm glad the Dutch are starting to look past them after the Rutte-Wilders fiasco.

I always looked past em
However, I think that if the VVD and the PvdA dont form acoalition, they‘ll be stuck for a while.

Bran Dawri wrote:

 thenoobbomb wrote:

 Seaward wrote:
As long as the winner's in favor of keeping marijuana legal and the red light districts humming, I am fine with him, whoever he turns out to be.

That's essentially the extent of my knowledge of the Dutch. That and dikes.

How about the deltaworks?
And Geert Wilders?

Or cheese? And Heineken. Which is actually one of the shittiest Dutch beers you can get, but everyone seems to know it, so there ya have it.
And don't forget clogs and tulips. Or New York, and a bout a gazillion little villages in Texas.

OK, stereotype time is over, methinks.
So, anyway, I kind missed the elections, being stuck in Africa and whatnot. But are the VVD and the PvdA really going to run the government together?
I mean, that'd be almost the Dutch version of Democrats and Republicans deciding that since they both have nearly 50% of the votes they should rule together. They're pretty much the direct opposites among the larger parties now that the CDA is on its long-overdue decline.
I could easily see PvdA and SP running together; though that'd probably kill the economy, at least they're not dividided on key issues.

villages in texas? What? We had a lot of Dutch immigrants here in the 1800s, and by Dutch I mean Deutsch.

Which one's Holland again? The one with the cheese or the one with the sausages?

 Albatross wrote:
Which one's Holland again? The one with the cheese or the one with the sausages?

The brownie...

You guys should vote for that Gert Wilders guy.

 Henners91 wrote:
You guys should vote for that Gert Wilders guy.

He's a gay, blonde racist, just like all the other Dutchmen.


I kid, I kid.



...Or do i?

Perhaps someone could give a general run down of the Dutch political parties and their general positions for those of us less informed.

Ill do during. mah break.

Geert Wilders all the way man! Twoot twoot!

I lived with a bunch of Dutch fobbits last year. Great times.

Are tulip bulbs still a big deal for dutch politics?

 Frazzled wrote:

Bran Dawri wrote:

Or cheese? And Heineken. Which is actually one of the shittiest Dutch beers you can get, but everyone seems to know it, so there ya have it.
And don't forget clogs and tulips. Or New York, and a bout a gazillion little villages in Texas.

OK, stereotype time is over, methinks.
So, anyway, I kind missed the elections, being stuck in Africa and whatnot. But are the VVD and the PvdA really going to run the government together?
I mean, that'd be almost the Dutch version of Democrats and Republicans deciding that since they both have nearly 50% of the votes they should rule together. They're pretty much the direct opposites among the larger parties now that the CDA is on its long-overdue decline.
I could easily see PvdA and SP running together; though that'd probably kill the economy, at least they're not dividided on key issues.

villages in texas? What? We had a lot of Dutch immigrants here in the 1800s, and by Dutch I mean Deutsch.

Well, I don't know anything about the actual history of Texas, but when I was there, a lot of the village names we drove through/past regularly were decidedly Dutch in nature. I'll grant you that the two languages are very similar, but being Dutch my "notice" bias was towards dutch origins.
There's DeRidder (the Knight), Groesbeck (could have been german, but Groesbeek is a village in the Netherlands), Snyder (Snijder, meaning cutter), DeKalb (the calf, though this one's ambiguous), and I'm sure a bunch of others (these are just the ones I remember offhand), not to mention a lot of ambiguous ones that could have originated from german as well as dutch. 'Course, there's more dutch-named villages in other states, too. Nederland, Colorado is the most obvious one. There's more of the Dutch in you Americans than you might think . If history had gone slightly different the language of choice around the world could have been Dutch instead of English...

Back on topic: Oh dear lord, not another purple cabinet ... The last umpteen years of them clearly worked out soooo well . I hate how the votes show that there are essentially two opposing blocks and then everybody says "the people want us to work together". WRONG!

Also notee that the SGP hasd grown..

They're a fairly hardcore religious party like the CU aren't they?
I tend to ignore these smaller splinter-parties for the most part.
In fact, I think they (religious parties, that is- small political parties I have no problems with) shouldn't exist in a secular society.

Dutch Politics?

Done.

 AustonT wrote:
Dutch Politics?

Done.

Neat, huh?

No, it took me almost 30 minutes to find a sizable army of gnomes and they are miniature. I was hoping for a 150-200 12" or larger gnome battle scene...apparently I am the only one who has envisioned it.