The collapse of the Dutch government has presented the Dutch electorate with a problem to which no easy solution seems obvious. The government has split over the question of troops in Afghanistan, but this can be seen as merely the explosive element that has blown a precariously built coalition apart.
The nature of Dutch politics makes it inevitable that another coalition will follow, possibly consisting of up to four parties, which would hardly be conducive to political coherency. As the larger parties fight amongst each other, the smaller parties are likely to reap the benefits – among them Geert Wilders’s anti-immigration Party of Freedom (PVV).
Since local elections are held just before the new national elections, it will be the indicator to see how the Dutch political landscape will look the upcoming years.
A team from the program Eòrpa from the Scottish BBC visits the Netherlands to produce a background reportage about the collapse of the Dutch government, looking at the extent to which this may have been an inevitable result of the country’s political landscape, and asking what this might mean for Dutch people in years to come – particularly the period of the government that will fill the current void.
In extensive interviews Christian democrat State Secretary of Defence and spin doctor Jack de Vries and resigned Minister of Housing Eberhard van der Laan give their views on the current political situation. For the reportage portraits and interviews are made at the Amsterdam Polder Mosque and political campaigning is filmed in Almere, a relatively new town in the Dutch polder and one of just two towns in which the PVV from Wilders will compete in the local elections.
For this production Featurez gave advice, did the research, set-up and planning of the filming, booked a rental van, did the driving, accompanied the filming, did the interviews and translations.