Nevertheless, great diaries and good insight into Dutch politics - appreciated!
ELECTION SUMMARY ::
Year 1998 2002 2003 PvdA 45 23 42 VVD 38 24 28 CDA 29 43 44
Coalition talks started in February 2003 between Election winner CDA Jan Peter Balkenende and new Labor leader Wouter Bos who made a great recovery for PvdA with 42 seats in parliament. On the agenda was the likelihood of an Iraq War and whether the Dutch should be part of the U.S. and U.K. coalition. As the present administration was not permitted to force a decision due to their post election status, Jan Peter Balkenende needed to have the 2nd largest party PvdA support for Iraq action.
Wouter Bos flip-flop
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My diary @dKos :: Dutch Aid to Iraq leads to Fatwa by Ali Sistani Sun Dec 12, 2004 at 12:30 PM PDT
"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
But it was understandable- the war started in the middle of coalition negotiations that would've ended directly if Labour had opposed the war. This was the reason they supported it, they didn't like the war or thought there'd be WMD. This is another reason why many left-wing voters currently reside with the smaller left-wing parties in the polls.
Bos also didn't really want to govern- he wanted time to 'purge' the party of 'bad' member before he wanted to enter government. But then he scored a homerun on election eve. So not entering government might've been the best for Labour (though not for the country)
For the story from his side, as stated on March 19th 2003, see here (in Dutch).
Mr. van der Stoel has done excellent reporting on Human Rights abuse during Greece dictatorship Colonel's Regime and Saddam Hussein's Stalin dictatorship during the nineties. His UN report is exceptional and of influence to consider Dutch participation in the Coalition of the Willing. The Kurd massacre played a role as well. The PvdA was divided after meeting with Max vd Stoel to formulate policy during coalition talks in March 2003.
● OSCE - Max van der Stoel Award 2005 ● Max van der Stoel Raad van State -dutch- ● RISQ - Iraq & International Social Questions
The government stance at the time wasn't very firm either: "moral but not military support". Which was also a consequence of the new government negotiations going on at the time.
Unfortunately, multiple people gave multiple explanations for it, etc.
