Why go
Party initials such as CDA, PvdA, VVD and D66 recur in accounts of modern Dutch history. Knowing their place in coalition politics makes those accounts easier to follow. A government could combine Christian democrats with either the left or the right, so an election result alone did not explain the eventual governing alliance.
The full story
After universal suffrage was introduced in 1919, three broad political families shaped much of Dutch government: Christian democrats, social democrats and liberals. Their parties negotiated coalitions rather than governing through a single party’s parliamentary majority. Christian democrats were a recurring partner in both centre-left and centre-right cabinets. The pattern became less settled in the 1970s as Christian democratic parties lost support and alternatives gained ground. D66, associated with progressive liberal and democratic reform ideas, was part of that changing landscape. The 1994 election brought a clear break. The CDA lost its dominant position, and VVD, D66 and PvdA formed a coalition known as purple. The label reflected cooperation between liberal and social democratic parties. This historical example explains the flexibility of Dutch coalition building; it does not describe the parties or balance of power in government today.