Populism

On how fragmentation works as a governance strategy, and why populists always win from it 1. A pizza nobody could eat On Budget Day 2026, the Dutch minority government led by Prime Minister Rob Jetten presented its first full budget. ABN AMRO, the country’s largest bank, described the result aptly: a pizza of which each coalition party received a number of slices. D66 had its slices, the VVD its slices, the CDA its slices. Together, those three parties hold 66 seats in the lower house of parliament. A majority requires 76. ...

On nostalgia as state strategy and why it works 1. Two images, one mechanism On 27 January 2024, satirical Dutch outlet De Speld published a piece about a Dutch tradwife who longed so intensely for the past that she accidentally ended up in 1917 — and no longer has the right to vote. “Well, that’s a bit annoying,” she says to her 5,000 TikTok followers, washing dishes in full make-up. Spanish flu, World War One, and no say in anything. She is considering joining the Association for Women’s Suffrage. ...