Liberal?

As the US begins in technical earnest the run-up to the Presidential elections, a tiny tutorial on the Dutch political landscape. This grew out of an interview I saw with the Premier-President Rutte, who is a very likable person (open to discussion, calm when challenged, well-spoken, good sense of humor, reasonably good listener) and conservative. The interviewer said to him, "So you're the first Liberal Premier since 1918...." and I thought, "Hmmmmmm?" (Insert Scooby sound.)

Rutte is certainly not the most right-wing figure in Dutch politics, but he's pretty far over there. So why did they say Liberal? After a lengthy explanation from my very-politically-savvy very special person and looking stuff up online (Wiki forever), here's the run-down of the major players, sorted by size with the largest first:

• People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD):  Sort of Libertarian (hence, "Liberal" in Dutch). Pro-private enterprise, pro-personal freedom, in theory. Center-right.
• Labor  Party (PvdA): Social democratic party pushing for inclusion of everyone. Equality is utopia; everyone getting some of what they want is ideal. The state exists to serve the needs of the people. Center-left.
• Party for Freedom (PVV): Anti-muslim, extreme right on foreign affairs. Socialist on economic issues. Extreme right and left-of-center all in one bundle.
• Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA): A pro-religion (not only Christian religion) party that believes the government's role is to help out, but that most of the work of society is to be done by people and the church (mosque, synagogue, etc.). Supports the "integration of minorities" (read: Thou shalt speak no language but Dutch). Center-right but less right than VVD.
• Socialist Party  (SP): More left than PvdA on social issues. More right than PvdA on foreign affairs and working with minorities.
• Democrats 66 (D66): #1 priority is democracy. Huge supporter of direct democracy at all levels for all institutions. Liberal on abortion & euthanasia, left-wing on immigration, right-wing on economics and environment.
• Green-Left (GroenLinks): Green environmentalist, left-wing, multicultural party.

With five other parties represented in Parliament and 43 registered parties not represented in Parliament, there are also, of course, every imaginable flavor of other political stances that one can picture.

The party affiliations are important because each party in Parliament votes all its seats together. Debate in the main body of the Second House is generally a conversation between the leaders (or a representative or representatives) of all the parties, with each leader representing the discussion he or she had separately with his or her affiliates before the combined discussion and continuing to get input from his or her affiliates as the discussion progresses. No one has enough seats to get their way all the time. Rather, the operation of government is a continuous flow of alliances and negotiations, lengthy debates and compromises. The goal is for as many people as possible to get some of what they want. Although elections are scheduled every four years, the Second House can also decide to dissolve itself, if the coalitions on which it is based become unable to function, in which case the elections come sooner than four years. This makes it critical for the parties to play nicely together, as bringing the political institutions to a grinding halt for political purposes only leads to the dissolution of the Parliament and all the legislators having to answer to their electorate. (Insert pointed look directed at the US Congress.)

So Liberal Rutte. That's actually, Libertarian Rutte, in English. Which solves the mystery. The Dutch have not had a Libertarian Premier since 1918. At that time, the Premiership was a rotational role, the chair of the council of ministers. Since 1974, the position has been held by the leader of the largest party in Parliament. The actual function of the Prime Minister wasn't laid down in the constitution until 1983; the Dutch have a Queen, after all. Living Prime Ministers include Piet de Jong (4 years representing the now-defunct Catholic People's Party), Dries van Agt (5 years, CDA), Ruud Lubbers (12 years, CDA), Wim Kok (8 years, PvdA), Jan Peter Balkende (8 years, CDA), and the current PM Mark Rutte (since 2010) (VVD).

A note to the Presidential candidates: The Dutch are watching the American elections closely. They find President Obama to be self-possessed, mature and imposing; he is widely respected in NL. Do try to be Presidential if you would earn the respect of the people of this very politically savvy ally of the US. You're free to say otherwise for the purposes of pandering, but the current President has set a high bar in the arena of international respect.