A Visit Home, A Look at its Politics

Judging from the many e-mails that I still get - despite the very low output on this site - there is still a lot of interest in Dutch affairs. The topic has disappeared from the headlines although there are some notable exceptions; take a look at this fairly spectacular item for instance.

In any case, I have just returned from the annual break back in the lowlands - photo here - and it seems that political sentiments have calmed down a bit, although deep uncertainty and confusion lurk beyond the surface. So, by summarizing the past five years in a long piece below, I have tried to reach some sort of interim conclusion from which we can look ahead. The core of the argument is that the confusion has created a 'volatile political market' where mainstream parties are ceding territory and new outfits on both the left and right are able to get traction, adding to the uncertainty.