Government fallen over

When the current Dutch government came into being, I don't think very many people thought they would sit out their term. I surely didn't. It didn't look particularly stable. The biggest party was Geert Wlders’ PVV, and that is one of those typical opposition parties that likes shouting from the sidelines, but doesn't appear particularly ready for government. Another participating party, the NSC, was so new it still had the price tag on. Would they be ready for this? And then there was the farmers’ party, the BBB, who only had existed for a few years, and had never been in power. So three out of four coalition partners were rather untested. The best bet seemed to be Rutte’s VVD, and that says something. 

When I was in the Netherlands I did chat with some people about politics. Wilders had been shouting things again. He wanted something related to immigration, and if he wouldn’t get it he would leave the coalition in July. But he seems to have shouted things like that before, without following it through. 

Then I got back. I arrived in the early evening. I snuggled the cat, went for a run (I was dying for exercise after 12 hours in a train), unpacked my bag, and went to bed. 

The next morning I got ready to go to work, and I noticed there was news. The government had toppled over! Wilders had pulled the plug early. What? I was only early June. What was that? Suddenly our cabinet was demissionary. (No, I don’t know if there is such a word, but there should be.) I saw that the leader of the VVD had said she figured that by pulling out right now, Wilders had handed government back to the left on a silver plate. I do hope she’s right! I’ll be flexing my voting muscles again. They’ll be needed quite soon!