Is there an Agricultural Agreement in place? NO. Is there a solution for accepting refugees? NO. Have more homes been built since this cabinet made this the cutting edge? NO. It is not surprising that the population has become increasingly distrustful of government and political administration. That there is a problem is normal, but if it is no longer being resolved – so what? After all, then self-confidence plummets.

The fall in self-confidence was obvious Citizen perspective, a study the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP) has systematically conducted for fifteen years, and its first episode was published recently this year. Dissatisfaction, write the researchers, ‘about the direction of the country and politics is growing and more and more people are glum about the economic situation’. Of course, there is always some degree of dissatisfaction. But, wrote SCP, ‘dissatisfaction with the state and politics is enormous compared to the last fifteen years’.

I agree. I am part of the 62 per cent of people in the Netherlands who think ‘the country is going in the wrong direction’, of the 60 per cent who are ‘dissatisfied with the politics in The Hague’ and of the 73 per cent who ‘expect the economy to get worse’. This is new for me, I’m always optimistic.

The last time the atmosphere in the Netherlands was so negative, after the 2008 financial crisis, I immediately wrote a book. In the Developing country I explained how the Netherlands can rise again. Don’t be a somber person, I wrote. Do a reasonable policy, make the right choice, then everything will be fine. Anyway a lot.

And I think so now. All the problems facing the Netherlands today can be solved. And they can also be solved in a number of ways; so there is something to choose from.

So what’s changed? The ability of politicians to choose and implement solutions. If there are three ways to solve the problem, politicians choose the fourth at the moment. Which doesn’t solve the problem at all, but costs a lot of money and takes up a lot of officials’ time.

I don’t think it’s because politicians suddenly become stupid or bad people. Of course they are somewhere in between, it always happens. No, today’s very ordinary politicians work in a political and social environment that makes it impossible for them to choose calmly from alternatives. The fragmentation in Chambers is complete, which prompts all parties to the baby to succumb to his own desire to profile himself.

Knowledge? Not like that. Stakeholders fight unconditionally for their privileges, more often than you think with threats (of death) and with tools of killing that can also be used in farming. appropriateness? Excuse me? The minister goes to work to survive. Civil servants go to work to help their ministers get through the day. Under such circumstances, practicing ‘good policy’ becomes a mirage.

If we want things to work out, we have to find a solution to crazy politics. I don’t have one available one-two-three. Personally, I find comfort in countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and Italy, which have either experienced some crazier political events, or are experiencing them now, and still continue to be. The Netherlands probably did that too.