Parliamentary elections in short.
The Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy. On paper, the King is the head of state, but the real decisions are taken by the parliament and executed by the government. Who do we vote for during the election and what's going to do with your vote?? Here's an attempt to explain that briefly and clearly.
Support statements and elections
A party that does not currently have people in the House must be able to provide a number of support statements in order to participate. This is nothing more or less than a document indicating a voting person that they support the participating of a particular party.
The Netherlands is divided into 20 so-called “constituencies”, a region comparable to a province in size. In order to participate in the election in a constituency, you must have 30 of these support statements as a newcomer. For the constituency of 'bonaire' in which the former colonies in the Antilles, which are now Special Municipalities of the Netherlands, you only need 10 declarations of support.
If a party does not have enough support statements in every constituency, they may not participate in all constituencies.
Politiek
For months, the formation has been virtually stationary because none of the parties involved wants to leave its buried position.. Normally, the biggest one breaks the deadlock with a big gesture towards the others.. But what we've seen is the reverse: the biggest party has withdrawn all its grand gestures from the campaign. The VVD is looking for the connection in itself. It's apparently necessary..
Tom-Jan Meeus writes a column in this place every Tuesday.. Another election promise broken by the VVD