[Politics] Far right party set to take power in Holland ?

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Not sure they would have won an absolute majority - I haven’t done the maths tbh! It‘s suffice to point out though that one of the arguments against PR often mooted is that some forms of PR are more likely to result in coalition governments and it is often the smallest party holding the largest to political ransom (such as the far right neo-Kahanistic parties in Israel). In this case it’s the largest party, the far right in the coalition being the ones holding the smaller more moderate ones to ransom.

Thus, I guess the issue isn’t which electoral system is better ( because they are all flawed), it’s the existence of far right political ideologies in coalition AND majority government. In FPTP, those far right political ideologies tend to exert internal influence within a mainstream party changing it from within (as has happened to the Republicans in the US) and just as threatening to moderate political thinking.

Neither FPTP nor PR imo can hold back the sea of anti-immigrationism, religious fundamentalism, nationalism, isolationism and violent rhetoric towards political opposition - all the hallmarks of Far Right extremism.

I agree that no voting system can hold back a tide towards extremism (whether right wing or left wing, to be fair), however I do believe that systems such as FPTP which so obviously disconnect votes from outcomes make things worse in the long run, as it adds to the sense of disenfrachisment.

Ultimately, the political centre has to find answers to the problems a society faces, and have some sort of story to tell people, or it's inevitable that they'll look elsewhere.

I think our experience in this country of UKIP/Reform shows that even under FPTP systems a majority government is subject so significant pressures from minority parties that have significant support. For that matter, there have been plenty of cases in British / UK history of minority governments relying on smaller parties, from the Conservatives relying on DUP votes a few years ago to the Liberals relying on the Irish Parliamentary Party in the 19th century. It might be less common than under other systems but it's not infrequent and is entirely dependent on how any given election happens to pan out.