Politics

Anyone here interested in politics, elections and stuff?

In The Netherlands we have elections in 6 weeks. Interesting fact: We have 28 party's who want to make it to the parliament.

Would like to know more details about how Netherlands political system works.

Well, we have a king which is a descendant of Willem of Orange-Nassau, who led the succesful revolt against Spain. But the king doesn't have any actual power.

Then we have the Staten-Generaal, which is according to Wikipedia: a Lower House or Second Chamber and an Upper House or First Chamber, also referred to as the Senate. Both houses of Parliament discuss proposed legislation and review of the actions of the cabinet. The Second Chamber also has the right to propose or amend legislation.

Members of the Second Chamber, generally considered the more important House, are elected directly every four years with a list proportional representation.

Members of the First Chamber are elected indirectly by provincial councilors, again every four years, just after the elections of the provincial councils, via a system of proportional representation.

After the election of the Second Chamber The formation of a cabinet will start, this is the process of negotiating an agreement that will get majority support in parliament and results in the appointment of the council of ministers.
Due to the multi-party system no political party has ever had a majority in parliament since 1900.

There are 11 parties in the current Second Chamber. The current Cabinet is formed by 2 parties, the Labour Party and the People's party for Freedom and Democracy.

A multi-party system where no political party has had a majority for that long sounds effective just because of checks and balances. Do you think there is a better representation of diversity due to a multi-party system? I think it would compared to a two party system. Also, which party/parties are you voting for in the election and what offices are on the election form?

I think there is a better representation of diversity indeed, but te system could become messy when there are a lot of small parties, because you have to work together with 5 or 6 parties to get majority.

I think i will vote for the party called GroenLinks (litterally: GreenLeft)
This is the party leader of GroenLinks:

exactly, and that's not a bad thing at all.

Are you following the Dutch politics? Do you know Geert Wilders?

Brenden wrote:

Nickr wrote:Stem SGP

lol

No, that's the party my parents vote

poolerboy0077 wrote:Are any of the candidates former reality show celebrities?

No.

In Italy we have not yet an electoral law, because the last one has been declared unconstitutional two weeks ago. However, for the next election we risk to have a parliament without a majority (hung parliament?) because we also have a multi-party system and no-one of them wants enter into coalition with others. It seems that a similar problem occurred in Spain too.

WizardWalter wrote:Would like to know more details about how Netherlands political system works.

Yes..........as a matter of fact there are probably millions of Americans seeking information on other countries in case we need to flee from the current ruler of the country. Bahahahahaha

Bahahahahaha

Bahahahahaha

You guys blew my cover (how did you know I was American? I always claimed to be from Antarctica). I was trying to get info to save all of us. Bahahahahahaha

We have voted yesterday and here are the results:
VVD - People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, 33 seats
PVV - Party for Freedom, 20 seats
CDA - Christian Democratic Appeal, 19 seats
D66 - Democrats 66, 19 seats
GL - GreenLeft, 14 seats
SP - Socialist Party, 14 seats
PvdA - Labour Party, 9 seats
CU - Christian Union, 5 seats
SGP - Reformed Political Party, 3 seats
DENK - Think/Equality, 3 seats
PvdD - Party for the Animals, 5 seats
50PLUS - 50PLUS, 4 seats
FvD - Forum for Democracy, 2 seats

What a relieve: far-right is not the biggest party.