The Treaty of Wassenar, which saw the first moves to dismantle the Dutch social welfare system, was agreed under the government of CDA Prime Minister Lubbers. When, at the beginning of the 1990s, the CDA, in a coalition with the social democratic PvdA, began cutting pensions and privatising a part of the state pension plan, the CDA was voted out of office and the social democrats took over the job of pushing ahead with the Polder programme.
In its period in opposition the CDA, which includes the Catholic People’s Party and the Christian Historical Union, moved sharply to the right. Its traditional rhetoric about Christian values, moderation and social consensus was replaced by an emphasis on neo-liberal, “free market” economic policy. In his election campaign Balkenende focused on law-and-order pledges to tighten domestic security and impose harsher punishment on lawbreakers, and to accelerate the privatisation of state-owned institutions.
The electoral success of the List Pim Fortuyn must be viewed against this political and social background. With all of the established parties complicit in a political system characterised by patronage and indifference to the acute social problems confronting broad layers of the population, Fortuyn had an open field to agitate against the “consensus society” and win influence with attacks on what he called “sorry politics,” i.e., the practice of apologising for the status quo while doing nothing to change it.
In its period in opposition the CDA, which includes the Catholic People’s Party and the Christian Historical Union, moved sharply to the right. Its traditional rhetoric about Christian values, moderation and social consensus was replaced by an emphasis on neo-liberal, “free market” economic policy. In his election campaign Balkenende focused on law-and-order pledges to tighten domestic security and impose harsher punishment on lawbreakers, and to accelerate the privatisation of state-owned institutions.
The electoral success of the List Pim Fortuyn must be viewed against this political and social background. With all of the established parties complicit in a political system characterised by patronage and indifference to the acute social problems confronting broad layers of the population, Fortuyn had an open field to agitate against the “consensus society” and win influence with attacks on what he called “sorry politics,” i.e., the practice of apologising for the status quo while doing nothing to change it.