Netherlands/Politics

The Netherlands are a Constitutional monarchy. The most important part of parliament, the [Tweede Kamer]? (Lower House), has 150 members, and is chosen once every four years by Proportional representation.

At the moment (1998-2002), the following parties have representatives in the Tweede Kamer, with the given number of seats

 PvdA?         45 Social Democratic
 VVD?          39 right-wing Liberal
 CDA?          29 [Christian Democratic]?
 D66?          14 left-wing Liberal
 GroenLinks?   11 left-wing Green Party
 SP?            5 Post-Communistic
 ChristenUnie?  5 Christian
 SGP?           3 right-wing Conservative Christian

Like a number of other European countries with proportional representation, the Dutch have always had Coalition governments. Since 1994, the governing coalition consists of PvdA?, VVD and D66. Before that, for 80 years the CDA (or the parties that later joined to form the CDA) had been in the government, sometimes with the socialists (PvdA?), sometimes with the liberals (VVD) as their coalition partner.

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See also Government, Drugs policy