User:Lmvdamme/February 2010 Dutch cabinet crisis

The February 2010 Dutch cabinet crisis is a series of events in dutch politics surrounding a request from NATO to keep Dutch armed forces in the Afgan province of Uruzgan.

Prelude
Since 2006, dutch forces have been present in Uruzgan with a mission of developement. Originally, this would be a two-year mission. In 2007 it was decided that the mission would be prolonged for another two years. This decision was made possilble by the support of the dutch Labour and Liberal parties, but only on the condition that all dutch troops would be withdrawn by the end of 2010.

Crisis
Early February 2010, the dutch government received an official request from NATO, requesting that dutch forces remain active in Afghanistan after 2010. Such a request is usually only sent if there is already a large degree of certainty that it will be met with compliance. In this particular case however, the dutch labour party had already declared that it will not support further prolongment of the mission. The other major government party, the Cristian-Democrats, has an opposite view, stating that no scenario should be excluded. This situation lead to a crisis within the cabinet, which appears to reach it's climax in the night of February 19th 2010. As of the night of the 19th, it is unclear wether or not the cabinet will survive this crisis.