No-confidence votes in Rutte IV cabinet continue to rise
The tally now stands at a 19th no-confidence motion in the Rutte IV cabinet, though it is just one year old. All Rutte cabinets combined have faced more no-confidence motions in the past 12 years than the entire parliamentary history before it. The score is 1.5 per month, 87 in total as of 2010 which constitutes 70% of the total. More than any other parliament. According to Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, this is remarkable.
Voermans notes that one successful no-confidence motion in our parliamentary history was ever passed in 1939. The Dekkers motion was tabled in a similar situation at the time, causing the Colijn V cabinet to pack up its bags after just four days. Voermans believes that one of the reasons for the current situation is the ‘fragmentation and polarisation of relations', but he also believes that it is to some extent due to the Rutte cabinets that it occurs so often. 'As a result, the instrument is eroding slightly and you see that it has little effect.' A motion of censure would have been better in the present situation, according to Voermans: 'You can then strike at the heart of a policy and send a minister packing.’