Politics and Elections in the Netherlands: coalition agreement presented

[Former President tack50]

If GL joins this coalition, how long before their support in the polls inevitably crashes into low single digits (the fate that seems to befall all parties that agree to be junior partners in coalition governments)

Who would replace them, like they replaced PvdA? D66? PvdA rises again? A new party that follows the same fate? SP?

[Former President tack50]

Its very complicated now, one party has to commit suicide in order to get a coalition I suspect

And I think it will have to be D66. CU can simply stay out. If D66 stay out, an early election seems almost unavoidable.

Also yeah lol @ that.

Could Rutte just lead a VVD minority government (or VVD-CDA) and pick his allies on a law by law basis?

That would be an incredibly unstable government, but seems better than new elections.

Also, calling it now, if there are new elections VVD will increase quite a bit.

[Former President tack50]

Much ado about nothing in Utrecht, the fourth city of the country with a population of about 350k, where a proposal by the PvdD that 50% of the snacks at municipal events be vegetarian or vegan unexpectedly received a 23-22 majority with GL and D66 support. This received quite some national media attention as the local VVD kept droning on about their opposition to this "anti-liberal" motion and even called for an emergency debate to introduce a new motion that would retract the PvdD initiative. This VVD proposal was supported by no other parties and received much scorn by other parties, who blame the VVD for creating the impression that politicians in Utrecht only bother to talk about the snacks they consume.

Why would D66 support it? Doesn't such a measure (forcing food trucks at some event to serve certain food) actually go against liberalism (like the VVD apparently said).

[Former President tack50]

Much ado about nothing in Utrecht, the fourth city of the country with a population of about 350k, where a proposal by the PvdD that 50% of the snacks at municipal events be vegetarian or vegan unexpectedly received a 23-22 majority with GL and D66 support. This received quite some national media attention as the local VVD kept droning on about their opposition to this "anti-liberal" motion and even called for an emergency debate to introduce a new motion that would retract the PvdD initiative. This VVD proposal was supported by no other parties and received much scorn by other parties, who blame the VVD for creating the impression that politicians in Utrecht only bother to talk about the snacks they consume.

Just one more reason why is necessary for sanity and future of the country that new government does NOT involve GL and D666.

Well, what do you propose instead? Other than maybe VVD+CDA+PVV+CU (which would require parties removing their veto towards PVV) or something along those lines (say, replacing CU with 50+ or SGP+FvD) you probably have to include at least D66

[Former President tack50]

Looks like a 3 way minority government (VVD-CDA-D66) would be by far the most effective way, but why don't the Dutch want that?

A minority government, while more unstable would probably also be more flexible. So they could pass everything. So some issues would see a conservative majority with CU and others a liberal (in the european sense) majority with PvdA.