Elections: my country divided

Last wednesday we had elections: the results are a disaster. I do not even know where to begin to described the political mess this country is in.

Some years back, the country was fed up with politicians, filthy games, bad policies and statements no normal person could understand. Then Pim Fortuyn came challenging the status quo pushing a political reform. He got shot and died.

Now the politicians have not taken any lessons from this period. We have a so called multi-party system in The Netherlands, which basically means every idiot can start a political party and run for elections. The biggest parties are the parties in the middle of the spectrum: christian democrats, liberals and social democrats. However as I already explained before they are not doing their job on a level satisfactory for the general public.

So what happened these elections?
We have now gotten ourselves into a situation where Dutch citizens have chosen for the extremes. Due to campaigns that highlighted rightwinged vs leftwinged differences, weak leadership, emphasis on the personalities instead of the ideas, the public chose to show their protest against current politics. The parties in the middle were punished, the extremes won. The party in favour of animals got 2 seats, an extreme rightwinged party got 9, a party that orginally stems from Maoist principles 24.

What does this result mean?
Basically to rule the country the parties need to get allies and get the majority of seats. Then this group can make a policy for the next 4 years and the rest is forced to take part in opposition. Since the results are so extreme, so stable coalition is really possible, which will leave us with 3 options:
- a very unstable coalition who will most likely get into a fight within a considerable amount of time followed by new elections
- no coalition at all which will leave all of them fighting over everything
- no coalition at all which will mean new elections.

What were the main themes in the elections?
1) We need to reform this country since we have so many poor people that need more help from the government. In practice the suggestion included: less privatization, less managers, downsize bureaucratic systems etc. ( To contrast these ideas: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4785813.stm Title: Netherlands does most for poor- On the contrary of research these parties have tried to convinve the public that we are all very poor and need more and that more should be paid by the government. One example: a women on tv was complaining that her allowance was not sufficient to pay for her flatscreen tv and mobile phone, poor her.....)
2) Immigration: close the gates or not, we are after all full....
3) Can we find a wife for the liberal frontman since he is single still? Who of the leaders had the most sex appeal and last but not least: when did our prime minister get his first kiss?

What was not discussed (or at least briefly)?
Trivial topics like the army, Iraq, Europe, sudan, Dutch competitive position, enterpreneurships, foreign policies, environmental issues etc.

What are the pictures about?
Picuture 1: campaign leaflet party in favour of animal rights
Picture 2: two "leaders" mingling with the ordinary people

What's next?
In my opinion, new elections, for the 4th or 5th time in 6 years.