The petition, which Van den Akker presented together with, among others, former ministers Yvonne van Rooy of the CDA and Jo Ritzen of the PvdA, has been signed more than 40,000 times. According to Van den Akker, raising the electoral threshold will solve three problems. “The multitude of parties in parliament will then be dissolved, because they can no longer make decisions,” she says. “Because of the quantity, the quality of the decision-making process is also not so good anymore.”
He believes that the problem of fragmentation can be solved by raising the threshold for being elected. “We also see it in many countries in the Netherlands,” she continues. “In the Netherlands, the threshold is extremely low. One hundred and fifty is enough to enter the House of Representatives, which is why every party now sees its chance to participate. However, this does not improve the quality of democracy.”
Greater trust
According to Van den Akker, trust in politics will also increase considerably with a higher electoral threshold. “This ensures that citizens – who are responsible for elections – can see that problems are resolved when parliament is able to make long-term decisions,” she continues. ‘It also ensures that coalitions can be formed in less than a year. In recent cabinet formations, we have seen that the formation of the coalition has taken almost one year out of four, and this does not mean that confidence is increasing.’
Raising is easy
Van den Akker points out that raising the electoral threshold is an easy process. It does not require a constitutional amendment. “This can be done with a simple amendment to the electoral law,” he says, acknowledging that it will become more difficult for new political parties to get elected to the House of Representatives. But there is nobody at sea. “Three seats are a low threshold even at the municipal level,” he concludes. “We see that almost all parties in the House of Representatives have managed to win one or more seats in recent years.”
Even on the basis of three seats as an electoral threshold, according to Van den Akker, there are enough parties that have made it. ‘In any case, there are four parties that have succeeded,’ concludes Van den Akker. “So if you want to be a pretty hefty sized party, three seats are certainly possible.”