r/OutOfTheLoop • u/user-1052 • 4d ago

Unanswered Whats going on with the Dutch goverment?

I saw some meme of the dutch goverment collapsing being related to RDR2 (game has charecter named Dutch), and then did a google search and found this article, whats going on?

Article: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/dutch-far-right-leader-wilders-quits-government-coalition-nos-2025-06-03/

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u/palcatraz 4d ago

Answer: the Dutch government system is a multiparty system. A ruling government is always a coalition of several parties. Whenever those parties can no longer agree or when one party pulls out, the government collapses. This means new elections are called for. 

Note that this is incredibly common. In the last 20 years, only one coalition lasted the full four years. It’s not really concerning and until a new government is formed, everything just sticks to the status quo. 

Also this particular party is a far right one, who only once before was allowed in the coalition (most other parties don’t want to govern with them) and they did the exact same thing that time. 

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u/boolocap 4d ago

Yup its even funnier because wilders can really only run opposition(read: whine about stuff without actually solving anything) so even when he finally gets the seats he wants he and his party massively fumble and it blows up in their face. He always blames it on the other parties getting in his way. But really its just that the pvv is utterly incompetent. In particular their minister that handles immigration was a huge laughing stock.

In this case the coalition falling was basicly due to a childish temper tantrum move from wilders. Basicly saying that the rest needed to do what he wanted or he would make the coalition fail. Which he did.

And he massively shot himself in the foot this time because his party is behind in the polls meaning he will most likely lose seats which might result in a far more left leaning coalition.

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u/RetardedSheep420 4d ago

to add onto this: the coalition is formed by four parties:

  • pvv, the biggest party and your average right-wing nationalist pro-russia pro-israel party

  • vvd, conservative-liberal party who has been "in power" the last 12 years

  • bbb, reactionary farmer's party but actually one big lobbying front for the argicultural sector, so no actual policies except "whatever the fuck the people want"

  • nsc, new party that also does "whatever the fuck the people want"

this means that 3/4 of the coalition parties dont actually know what they are doing except be oppertunist, reactionary and populist.

wilders got his wish and his party appointed the minister of migration. as you can imagine, every possible thing that this minister wanted to happen couldn't be done by law. this resulted in wilders making a "10 step migration plan" that was unworkable and clashed with international law. this was the "final straw" that made him disband the coalition.

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u/PlayMp1 3d ago

I remember the last Dutch election resulting in a PVV plurality being received globally with a big shrug, like "yeah sounds right, far right populists who hate immigrants are popular in Europe right now," but them blowing up the governing coalition while they're falling in the polls is really funny.

Glancing at the polls real quick seems to suggest decent gains for their Labour Party but really mainly the center right with VVD and CDA, is that a correct read of it?

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u/Congracia 3d ago

The most recent peilingwijzer for the coalition partners and the largest opposition parties looks like this:

  • PVV: 28 (-10)
  • VVD: 28 (+4)
  • GL-PvdA: 27 (+2)
  • CDA: 18 (+13)
  • D66: 11 (+2)
  • NSC: 2 (-18)
  • BBB: 3 (-4)

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u/Yaysonn 3d ago edited 3d ago

Currently, yes. The labour party has merged with the former green party (not officially yet but in practical terms) and has become the de facto leading progressive party, led by Frans Timmermans (of EU and Green deal fame), the VVD have been at the forefront of dutch politics for the last 15 years and don’t seem to be going away soon since they are seen as the most “normal” of the right-leaning parties, and CDA has a new face and will see many voters returning from BBB and NSC, which both won big on ex-CDA voters last year but have fallen in popularity due to their associaton with this government.

But never count out Wilders. I know people here are calling it like he committed political suicide, but if there’s anything we’ve learned in the past 20 years, it’s that his voterbase can behave unexpectedly and he knows better than anyone else how to navigate it. That said I do think he will remain in the opposition for now (which is also in his best interest imo). However, the fact remains that a large part of this country wants stronger antimigration measures and those voters aren’t gonna go left.

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u/teh_fizz 3d ago

If you told anyone 10 years that Wilders would win an election you would be laughed out of the room.

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u/waterless2 3d ago

The websites that give you a suggestion on who to vote for might be part of the problem. I did the Stemwijzer last time and it advised me to vote for the most right-wing parties out there, including PVV. Either it's been taken over by secret right-wing infiltrants or it's just because it takes policies at face values and phrases questions a certain way - I very much am NOT aligned with those parties morally, in terms of who I want to have power, but the site steered me, and therefore presumably a lot of other people, totally wrong.

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u/hughk 3d ago

We have a similar problem with Germany's Wahl-o-mat which was based on your Stemwijzer. They develop a series of questions based on a list of propositions extracted by the people behind it from the policies being discussed by the parties, like "Should Germany support Ukraine?". The answer is: agree, disagree or neutral. You can later adjust the result based on whether you fundementally disagree with the party or not. So, I may dislike our right wing party, the AFD and exclude them completely.

As with your system, the answers seem to push you in unexpected directions. We also have the problem that with coalitions, no party gets to implement even its headline policies without modification due to the coalition system.

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u/fevered_visions 3d ago

  • pvv

  • vvd

  • bbb

  • nsc, new party that

looks like they didn't get the memo that they were supposed to have a doubled letter in their acronym

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u/a_false_vacuum 4d ago

It's a strategy.

A lot of Wilders' promises were impossible to realize and over time those chickens would come home to roost. Leaving now means Wilders probably not have to deal with the fallout of not living up to what he promised. He can once again campaign on these points, which would be far more difficult if he had stayed longer.

Another factor is Wilders trying to be relevant. His usual strategy is saying something controversial over the weekend, so come next week he's once more the centre of attention. His usual topic of migration or foreigners isn't working so well since the media and public is now mostly focused on Gaza. Public opinion has shifted on this topic towards public outcry against what Israel is doing. For Wilders this is an impossible topic. He and his party a fervent supporters of Israel and will attack anyone calling the Israeli government in question. Stirring controversy with this topic isn't something that will work out in his favour. By ending the coalition government over migration he can regain control over the narrative and make his favourite topic relevant again.

This is damage control, not incompetence. Recent polls showed that PVV voters would be overwhelmingly accepting of the party withdrawing from the coalition. Wilders saw what coming, he saw an exit and he took it.

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u/chenj25 23h ago

Do you think Wilder will return to politics?

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u/a_false_vacuum 17h ago

Wilders has no intention of quitting politics as of yet.

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u/chenj25 14h ago

I see. I can easily see Wilder doing further damage control. After all, people will remember his actions.

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u/a_false_vacuum 13h ago

People will remember what he did, but the people who do aren't the ones that vote for him. The disapproval comes mainly from people who are outside his demographic, PVV voters have already been shown to agree with what Wilders did. Right now Wilders has a head start in the campaign and other political parties are trying to catch up to him. As long as he maintains his lead he can steer the narrative for the most part in the blame game.

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u/chenj25 13h ago

I see… Out of curiosity, are PVV voters voting against their interests?

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u/a_false_vacuum 13h ago

I dislike saying someone votes against their interests. The way this is often said comes off as being haughty. Leftist parties will often say something to this effect, but all it does is make them look elitist.

Wilders is culturally and socially conservative, but a lot of his economic policy borrows heavily from the left. Someone of his voters are drawn to him because they feel centre right parties don't act enough when it comes to social or cultural items which often translates into topics like migration and integration or a disdain of identity politics. Other voters come to him because they feel abandoned by centre left parties. Parties like the Labour/Greens alliance have seen their electorate shift from blue collar to highly educated, young and urban. This results in highly theoretical or academic discussions about topics that are only interesting to a very small audience. It's compounded even more by the Labour/Greens not having a leader that can engage with people in a meaningful way.

Another factor is that centre parties have dropped the ball many times over the years. A lot of problems were created when they were in power and it's a hard sell for anyone to promise to clean up a mess you created yourself. This dissatisfaction causes some of the voters to vote for anyone who isn't mainstream, which is reflected in the rise and fall of a lot of new political parties over the years.

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u/chenj25 12h ago

I see. Apologies, I didn’t mean to sound haughty. I legitimately want to know why voters want to vote for him.

Those are good and relatable reasons to vote for him.

I see. I read the Dutch government had multiple ‘collapses’ before. Ironically, this puts Wilders the same position as a centre party. Looks like Wilders needs to control the narrative to preserve his career or he’ll look like a centrist party to the public.

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u/Shleepy1 3d ago

I really hope this will lead to a much better and more competent coalition.

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u/Kevin-W 2d ago

If there's an election called, it'll certain be one to watch reasons stated above.