Celebrated it with some friends yesterday in the most traditional manner possible: classic Guy Fawkes Day treats, a bonfire while burning our Guys, and some fireworks and sparklers. A lovely way of marking the day!

It was really nice to be able to do so - looking forward to belatedly celebrating even more loudly and proudly on Saturday, too 🥳

Enjoyed a few home comforts for dinner this evening: homemade cottage pie and Yorkshire puddings served with gravy and English ale. Celebrating a national holiday when living abroad can sometimes be a bit melancholic (or have a bit of FOMO), but this always helps to soften the blow 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🔥🎆

It’s also worth nothing that though D66 did indeed get the largest number of votes, they have the same number of seats as the PVV. So though this is a victory of sorts, it’s not a landslide (26/150 seats… 76 for a majority) and it’s not a guarantee that the Far Right will stay out of power.

Thank you very much 😊

Thank you so much! It took a lot of time and effort, and I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out (and it tastes great too!) 🥹🎃👻

And you’re right about that being unexpected! The VVD, like a lot of centre-right parties in the West has been moving more and more right over the past 5/10 years. The liberalism is still there, but the conservatism is much stronger.

Oh absolutely, but there’s only so much space without writing an essay haha. The CDA do still care about business - their approach is more that the market should support business owners/society and people should be able to trust in that “support” rather than what the market wants, the market gets.

The VVD is a lot more focussed on businesses and harder immigration/defence policies. It’s quite similar to the modern Tory party. The CDA is more centre-right (think Cameron’s Tories) with a focus on the middle class in the provinces and ensuring policy respects the rule of law.

“But what about the PVV? Why won’t anyone work with them especially if they end up the largest?”

Because they’ve proved unreliable in government, because they’re fascists and because that’s how democracy works - if a majority can be formed without them, it’s still a majority.

Either way, a long-lasting, stable and productive coalition will be difficult to form - and it’ll require leaders putting national rather than party interests first. A centrist coalition of D66, VVD, GL-PvdA and CDA (Christian Democrats) seems the best, most productive & most realistic option.

It’ll be tough with the VVD (conservatives) not wanting to work with GL-PvdA (centre-left greens), but they’re not in as strong a position as D66 who seem very hesitant about a coalition with JA21 (populist right), which would still fall a seat short, and especially the BBB (agrarian right).

It’s worth remembering that even if the PVV (extreme right) are the largest party, they won’t necessarily be a part of the coalition. They’ll have the right to try first, but no majority is really possible with these numbers. So it’ll likely fall to D66 (social liberals) to form a coalition.

Hoping and praying we can close this chapter of hate, division and racism that has infected this country 🙏🏻

Some of this I’m not particularly happy about - the PVV and its ilk are still too high for my liking - but if it ends up being roughly like this, I’ll be pretty pleased