The C word(s)

Coach, coalition, CEO. All C words. It looks like we wonder a lot about them recently. We groenlinksers, that is.

To start with the Coach -or CEO-. The metaphor of the football team is apt. If the team plays nicely, but win no match, the owners are due to change the coach. So: are we intending to change coach Femke? Should we?

The word CEO comes next. In a business is the CEO the main strategist and coordinator, able not only to give the right vision of future strategy, but also able to coordinate the capabilities of the company. It is true that an amount of disgruntled groenlinksers are around, asking for more left, more action, more clarity, more environment, more... It looks like this group is not happy with the way Femke leads our boat.

Both C words, the coach and the CEO, are no good for Femke's future as groenlinks leader.
But what about the coalition word?

It seems to me that an undercurrent of groenlinksers, far larger than the ones that publicly criticize Femke's leadership, is just waiting. Up to the moment in which finally a coalition will start working. It seems clear that the CDA-PvdA-SP combination has a big chance, at least right now. But what about in some weeks from now? Or in some months? What about the old view of groenlinks as hinge party, capable to play a definitive role in some sort of CDA-VVD-GL alike coalition (very unlikely) or even in a CDA-PvdA-GL alike one... What about that chance?

It could all boil down to nothing. It could be that the current combination gets a fair shoot at government, or a rightwing coalition ends up in power after a long negotiation night. Who knows? What I have heard too frequently lately is that, up to the moment in which the chips will be down in the table, GL is not ready to close the account Halsema.