Politics and Elections in the Netherlands: Rutte III era

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I have a really hard time seeing this government (with its bare majorities) completing its term, and that's because of the elephant in the room known as Brexit. According to an assessment by Rabobank, this will impact the Dutch economy more severely than generally thought, and the harder the Brexit, the worse it will be.

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Emile Roemer will step down as leader of the Socialist Party and will be succeeded by Jan Marijnissen's daughter Lilian. Not great optics for a formerly communist party.

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Former Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers (1982-1994) just died. He was the longest reigning as well as the youngest PM in the country's history.

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The bellwether municipality of the general election last year was Apeldoorn, which nonetheless voted yes in the referendum. Perhaps this suggests that the referendum would have passed had there been a local election in every municipality.

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Although Heemskerk has dueled with Apeldoorn for the title of best bellwether in the past few elections, it fell behind a bit in 2017. Better bellwethers for that year include Enkhuizen (against) and Brummen (for).