When the coalition party was formed, they made an agreement that they would not extend the mission in afghanistan again. This was one of the most important points that the Labour Party brought into the coalition. The Labour party is simply keeping their promise (for once). Its the CDA and Balkenende who are to blame for this mess.
Just a quick question: How long has CDA and PDVA being in coalition? I was under the impression that it was CDA with VVD in coalition and PVDA was opposition party.
CDA and PvdA are in a coalition with the ChristenUnie (Christian Union) since February 2007. They followed up a interim (minority) cabinet consisting of CDA-VVD, which was formed after the collapse of the VVD-CDA-D66 coalition in 2006. On the Dutch wikipedia is a clear overview of the Dutch cabinets.
A new cabinet with CDA and PvdA as the main parties will be difficult (as all other coalitions will be), not only because of this quarrel, but also because of the spreading of parliament seats, especially the PvdA is in loss in the polls. In the polls, none of the parties has a clear majority, so the next coalition will probably have tot consist of at least three, but maybe more parties. 77.167.224.101 (talk) 13:18, 21 February 2010 (UTC)
This is very helpful -- many thanks! It should be a very interesting time for Dutch politics -- lets see what happens!