The C word comes back with a revenge: on coalition

Planeetgroenlinks' orbit has an interesting horizontal-eight figure right now, which is the figure not only from infinite, but also the one that results when something turns around two poles of attraction: Shall or shall we not go for a coalition?

Most groenlinksers seems to be satisfied by the declarations of Cees Vendrik, when he said that not being relevant winners of the elections, we should not be in the coalition. Many arguments supporting this position have been aired in the past days. One is that being part of a government implies less seats in the next election. Another argument is that being government against strong opposition -the SP- will be political suicide. And yet another is that being in govenrment with the PvdA is also political suicide, since we are after all not that different than the social-democrats. Further, it has been suggested that if we would enter in negotiations, we should enter in a strenght position, not really willing to negotiate much of our election program.

Much of these arguments are easy to reject. Sure, it will be difficult for a moderate left wing party as GL be part of government with SP in the opposition. But is it not as hard as being in the opposition with the SP? GL is a bad opposition party, let's not be too polite about it. On the other side, it is possible that being at the side of the PvdA will blurr our identity, as it has happened in the last four years, with Bos using GL standpoints frequently. But having a minister will make it more likely that GL identity shall get anchored to a good concrete piece of work. consider the reputation of Herman as R'dam wethouder or the first months of Marijke in A'dam.

All in all, in the argumentation of the “coalition refuseniks” runs a common concern. Any likely coalition in which groenlinks coul work today is less than perfect. Or with the PvdA, or against the SP, or with the CDA, etc etc etc. But hold on for a moment. Is it likely that conditions would get better anyway? No way. GL is a party that will remain small for quite a while. Any scenario for a first coalition is going to be hard, so why not try it now?

And to round up the discussion, what about the responsibility of politicians? I mean, if we go to elections, we do have the responsibility of trying hard as we can to influence government, isn't that the point? Can we really afford to refuse an offer to be part of the government? I think we can't. And let's nail down this argument with a paranoid prediction: suppose that SP, GL and eventually even PvdA refuse to form govenrment. Can you imagine a CDA-VVD-PvdV-(and so forth) coalition? Wouldn't that be lovely? And wouldn't we be accomplices of such a disaster, if refusing when we could form other coalition?