I like how there’s American flags all over it as if it’s somehow a patriotic thing to do.

First they came for the comedians, now you can go to jail for quoting the president. 

The thin blue line, indeed. 

I’m curious, all: Do you think it wouldn’t made any difference on the election had Joe Biden said something like “Nintendo Switch to the polls” or something? I feel like that “Pokémon Go to the polls!” line really helped Hillary back in 2016. Had she doubled down during the reveal of Nintendo Switch with something like, “Have you seen that new Mario game? It sure was odd-to-see.” or “Mario Run to the polls!,” no doubt she would’ve won the gamer vote.

Not U.S. news per se, but it could affect Trump's ability to implement his agenda in the EU. Rob Jetten, the centrist leader of D66, is a favorite to become the next prime minister of the Netherlands. The election was a stinging rebuke to the right-wing populist PVV party and its leader, Geert Wilder, who are expected to lose 12 seats in the country's parliament.

I found the polling for this election fascinating, as the D66 and VVD really skyrocketed in October while the PVV tanked in the same time and GroenLinks underperformed somewhat compared to the polls.

The next government will need 4 parties, as even if the 3 biggest parties would unite (which they won't, as one is the PVV), they would be at 75 out of 76 seats necessary. I think D66, VVD and Groenlinks will be in the coalition, the question is who else? Probably the CDA, as no other non-far-right party has enough seats to get past 76 seats.

Speaking of far-right parties, I believe it's a rebuke to Geert Wilders, but not far-right politics, as the even further to the right JA21 and FvD basically got the seats that the PVV lost. D66 and VVD basically just took over the seats from NSC, which had a disastrous election going from 20 seats to nothing at all.

Back when I still lived in the Netherlands, D66 and Groenlinks were more compatible with PVDA, VVD more with CDA. It will be interesting to see CDA work with D66 and Groenlinks.

Ah I see PVDA and Groenlinks are already combined.


Source: Electoral Council, NOS

75 needed for a coalition, D66, VVD, GL-PVDA, CDA it will have to be. What a mix. At least they are all parties with many decades of experience, as in older than me lol.

What is the next government going to fall over? Climate change initiatives... Taxes... All these parties have butted heads before as well with coalitions falling apart. Hopefully it lasts this time.

Not to derail an American thread, but at the moment the difference in votes is about 15000 in favor of D66, basically due to Amsterdam. Before its results were in Wilders’s PVV was ahead by about 2000 votes. Super close, and there’s still a couple more municipalities that have to publish results. Plus votes from abroad aren’t in yet. I doubt those will be enough to let PVV win though.

But it doesn’t matter much regardless, because most parties already said beforehand that they don’t want to work with the PVV anymore, so Wilders likely isn’t going to be able to form a coalition. So yeah Trump will lose a European friend.

Something that they could’ve come together on if they weren’t busy with themselves all the time I’m sure. Confidence here in politics is at an all-time low because of the persisting shenanigans, name-calling, mud slinging. You name it. 

Also, Jetten is gay so the Trump administration will probably find that questionable.

Not Netherlands-related, but American-related: If PVV had gotten the largest share of the vote of all of the competing parties in the Netherlands and didn't get to control the government, a lot of American right wingers would have been upset that Wilders didn't get to be Prime Minister, even if that share was like 25 percent. A lot of them are hung up on the "winner takes all" mentality. When Herbert Kickl didn't win the chancellorship of Austria after his party got 29% of the total vote (the largest single share), American right-wingers were big mad about it. In their mind, he should have had a total mandate off of that 29 percent. It didn't register to them that 71% basically voted against FPO and formed a coalition accordingly. 

To give you an example, Oklahoma is one of the "reddest" states in the USA. Even there, Kamala Harris got a larger share of the vote (31.2%) than any single party is likely to get of the Dutch electorate. All five of Oklahoma's congressional districts likewise had Democrats voting in larger shares than PVV or any other party is going to get in the Dutch election.  Those 35% of Oklahomas will be completely unrepresented in any branch of the federal government, and they don't really have any effective representation in the state government, either. 

This is also why voting third party is useless in the United States, for people outside (and inside) the United States who can't wrap their heads around the fact that the U.S. technically uses a two-party system, and in most jurisdictions, it's really a one-party system.

The American system has its issues yes.

Two years ago though Wilders won with a big lead, but he didn’t became prime minister. He wasn’t even in the cabinet. His party was, but he wasn’t. I don’t remember any comments from American republicans back then, though I might have missed that.