Political balance in Cabinet threatened

Without a drastic change in the coalition parties’ popularity, there will be a major shift in the political balance in The Hague after the March provincial elections, newspaper Volkskrant said November 26.
The latest monthly analysis from research group GfK shows that the coalition parties could lose more than half their 2012 support, which will give the opposition the upper hand in the senate.provincial councillors determine the political makeup of the upper house of Parliament. The government currently relies on the D66 Liberals and two minor Christian parties to ensure a majority vote in favour of legislation.

However, the polls indicate that the coalition could be 20 seats short of a majority in the First Chamber – a gap too big to be filled by the three “friendly” opposition parties.There are 75 senators. The GfK poll suggests the VVD Liberals will be in third place, behind Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration PVV and D66, while support for the coalition Labour party will plunge. This, the paper said, will make it virtually impossible for the coalition to get any legislation through the senate, and plans to overhaul the tax system could be the first to suffer.