All agree to austeririty measures to solve Budget Crisis

by Clifford F. Thies

In a third attempt to form a government following this year's parliamentary election, the three main center-right parties appear to have joined into a so-called Danish Solution: A minority government consisting of the market-liberal Dutch Peoples Party and the center-right Christian Democrats supported by Geert Wilder's populist-right Freedom Party. This is called the Danish Solution since the government in Denmark is, similarly, a minority center-right coalition supported by a populist-right party. The big difference is that the populist-right party of the Netherlands is a big party.

Together, these three parties have a bare majority (76 seats) of the national parliament (150 seats). We would presume that the leader of the People Party (with 31 seats), Mark Rutte, a former corporate executive, will be prime minister, and the leader of the Christian Democrats (21 seats), Maxine Verghagen, will be foreign minister. The leader of the Freedom Party (24 seats), the flamboyant Geert Wilders, will not have a formal post in the government, but will have to be consulted on all major decisions.

The parties are agreed to austerity measures to quickly reduce the deficit in the Netherlands from 6 to 3 percent of GDP (as compared to the current U.S. deficit of 11 percent of GDP), and to policies concerned with the integration of immigrants into Dutch life, including work and language requirements. Beyond these things, it may be best to simply say they have agreed to disagree. Much of the Freedom Party's manifesto concerning Islam and immigrants from the Muslim world and from eastern Europe is simply incompatible with the commitment of center-right parties and classical liberals to social tolerance, civil liberties and freedom of religion. And, besides, there is a question as to whether the relevant sections of the Freedom Party manifesto were merely political rhetoric, or just initial bargaining positions to be easily discarded upon the start of negotiations to form a ruling coalition.