Purple coalition
term for governments consisting of parties that have red and blue as their political colours
Purple is a common term in politics used to describe governments or other political entities consisting of parties that have red and blue as their political colours. It is of particular note in three countries. In the politics of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Finland, purple (Dutch: paars) is the term for a government coalition of social democrats and liberals, excluding Christian democrats. It is derived from the combination of the colour of the social democrats (red) and liberals (blue).
Netherlands
Kok cabinets
In the Netherlands the two cabinets of Prime Minister Wim Kok (Kok I and Kok II, 1994–2002) were composed of social democratic PvdA, conservative liberal VVD and social liberal D66.
Purple-plus
In the 2010 Dutch cabinet formation the possibilities for a "Purple-plus" cabinet (the original purple coalition of PvdA, VVD, D66 as well as GroenLinks) was investigated. Since 5 November 2012, following the 2012 Dutch general election, the VVD has been the senior partner in the second Rutte cabinet, a grand coalition Purple government with the PvdA.
In October 2013 the second Rutte cabinet (VVD and PvdA), which has no majority in the Senate, reached a budgetary agreement with D66 and the smaller Christian parties Christian Union (CU) and the Reformed Political Party (SGP). This occasional coalition is nicknamed "purple plus the Bible" (Paars met de Bijbel) as it includes the purple parties VVD, PvdA and D66 plus the Bible-minded parties CU and SGP. The term "purple plus the Bible" had already been used in February that year, when the same parties reached an agreement on modernising the housing market. Then-Minister of Finance, Jeroen Dijsselbloem (PvdA) called D66, CU and SGP his "most beloved opposition parties". The three parties were influential on the policy of the second Rutte cabinet, because without their support new parliamentary elections were inevitable.
The public source identifies “Purple coalition” as term for governments consisting of parties that have red and blue as their political colours. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Purple, coalition and term.
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This entry incorporates text from “Purple coalition” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.