In Drenthe, nineteen parties will participate in the provincial elections on 15 March. That is a record number in our province. Newcomers are Jesus Lives, the BBB (BoerBurgerBeweging), BVNL (Belang van Nederland), Volt and Alliantie. Sixteen parties participated in 2019. Of these, twelve eventually ended up in provincial councils.
According to emeritus professor of constitutional law Hans Engels, there are advantages and disadvantages to the large number of parties participating. “It depends on how you look at it,” he says. “You can see it positively. There is more to choose from and it is easier to choose a party where you can look at a partial interest. And nowadays many voters are looking for a new party, because they no longer feel at home with the classic parties.”
On the other hand, Engels also sees disadvantages. “There is a good chance that many parties will be elected in the States. Then you run into the problem that forming a coalition becomes more difficult, because there are no parties that have won many seats. You probably have to involve more parties. , you get more deputies, possibly part-time, and then it is difficult to properly shape the unity of college policy.”
Engels also considers the chance of polarization to be greater. “If you can hardly achieve a political majority of one or two seats, you will have a hard time for four years. And then it will be difficult to come up with good policy for Drenthe.” In addition, the political culture is also changing. “In the House of Representatives, more is played on the man and there is a good chance that this will spread to municipalities and provinces. This has to do with the fact that the new parties have a different vision of how democracy should work.”
Moreover, smaller parties with one or two seats will want to profile themselves, says Engels. “They want to be visible and that is often accompanied by a lot of noise and that means that the choice of words and manners are becoming more similar to how we do that in the cafe or on the street.”
Engels fears that the province will become more difficult to govern. “If you end up in a different culture with different manners, that will be leading for how you will govern. And that will distract from the content and core of what needs to happen in the province over the next four years. And then keep you’re doing each other the wrong way.”