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 It is two months since the Dutch went to the polls. Immediately following the election, the leader of the party winning the largest number of seats, Mark Rutte of the economic Liberals (VVD), was confident that he would form a coalition by the beginning of July. The beginning of July has come and gone. So has the beginning of August and still the Netherlands is without a new government — and it looks as if it is going to be at least the beginning of September before an announcement. To be fair to Rutte, the arithmetic simply is not there.
In the Netherlands, where there are 10 parties in Parliament, a majority can often only be formed through more than 2 parties in a coalition. This time, it looked as if 4 parties were needed to form a Government (VVD + 3 left wing parties). The talks with VVD + left wing parties did not result in a agreement, however. Right now, whether center, right or left, no one really can muster enough seats to form a stable coalition.
Cabinet negotiator Ruud Lubbers is to hold new talks with the leaders of the three more or less right wing parties, hoping to form a minority cabinet: (VVD), Maxime Verhagen (CDA – Christians) and Geert Wilders (PVV – anti muslim party). Wilders would officially not be in the government. He'd be backing the minority government (no majority) so he can get some of his points across + help the VVD& CDA to govern the country with a majority. The three parties had been expected to begin formal negotiations this week. They have already agreed to make spending cuts totalling €18bn over the next four years.
Of course there is lots to say about government policy, but since this website is SaveOurShrooms.org, we almost purely focus on the policy towards shrooms 
In the VVD, Fred Teeven was the anti-mushroom pitbull who put lots of energy in banning the magic shrooms in december 2008. In the CDA, Ciska Joldersma has been a crusader against the enlightenment bringing fungi. The PVV is heavily against coffeeshops, and has voted for a ban on shrooms in 2008.
The good situation right now is that the policy to keep Magic Truffles & Mushroom Growkits legal, is relatively new, and no signs have been there that these products need immediate banning. Police and Hospitals report many incidents with drugs such as cocaine, alcohol, xtc and tobacco, but real problems with psilocybine products arent happening. Parliamentary question from Joldersma (CDA) as to why the truffles stay legal , have been answered by the (CDA) minister that truffles are less strong. It is true that truffles are very psychedelic, but keep you more in control as shrooms. Klink's party CDA was in a coalition with the PvdA, back then. The PvdA did not agree that their coalition partner wanted to ban shrooms, but the ministery of Health was run by the Christians.
Lets hope Holland will continue not start to prosecute people who are in search for creativity, meaning, understanding and a hilarious time. Various researches have shown shrooms are not harmful, are among the most spiritual happenings in people's lives, can take away mental illnesses, and are one of the X-Factor in the creative economy (we will post more details/resources about this soon). Because of these reasons it is actually very ironic that people want to ban shrooms: in their search for a better society they ignorantly slam down their own diamonds.
For shrooms at least, it is a pitty that the Labour party (PvdA) will probably not be in the government. PvdA and the Green Party (Groen Links) have openly been an advocate of legalizing mushrooms. The Green party said should that even though the shrooms are not legal, they should be permitted anyway. The PvdA said that shrooms should be legalized again, because combi-drug(incl.alcohol) is the real problem.
Mushroom-friendly Job Cohen, the former mayor of Amsterdam who became Labour’s leader ahead of the general election, said he was ready for talks with the smaller Socialist party, which has proposed writing an alternative coalition programme that could be put to Christian Democrat backbenchers. Emile Roemer, leader of the Socialist party, said a centre-left coalition of his party, the Labour party and the Green Left party could make a direct appeal to Christian Democrats, who will hold a party congress following negotiations over a rightwing minority government. “A rightwing government gives Wilders the power and makes governing hard because he can block every decision,” Mr Roemer said. “The choice is between negotiating once now over a centre-left coalition or negotiating every day with the PVV in coming years.”
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