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Five of the "new" men are members of the new Socialist Party of Labor, which will get its first test May 17 when the people vote for members of the lower house of the States-General. Before the war, there were three major religious parties in Holland—one Catholic, two Protestant. The left wings of these parties joined the Socialists in February to form the Party of Labor (headed by Schermerhorn), which expects to win 35% of the votes in the coming elections. The Catholic People's Party can count on about 30%. Communists will not likely get more than 10% of the vote. The traditional Protestant parties will share the rest of the seats with minor groups.
Why the Dutch? Good as they unquestionably are, the men who now govern The Netherlands cannot alone account for The Netherlands' extraordinary recovery. Why do the Dutch work together while the rest of Europe either sinks back into apathy or tears itself apart over contending theories of how society can be organized?
Men who really know The Netherlands explain the last twelve months in terms of the last three centuries of Dutch history. When they hear the word "tolerance" used in connection with Holland, they make an insistent distinction: tolerance in The Netherlands is not the tolerance of indifference. They point to the fact that until the war the basic organization of Dutch politics was along religious lines; men felt so keenly about their religious beliefs that they rarely formed political associations outside the framework of their faiths. The religious difference was intensified by the fact that Dutch nationhood was born in the course of a largely Protestant struggle against Spanish domination of the Low Countries.
In almost any other country this deep cleavage would spell intolerance; but the Dutch character is affected by another factor: for centuries the Dutch have lived in the shadow of calamity. They work together because men who live behind dikes know that they must work together, no matter how profound the differences in their convictions, if they are to keep out the sea. All Dutch communities are orderly, but those that lie at low altitudes are almost invariably cleaner and tidier than those above sea level.
The seaborne Dutch insistence on order and cooperation between all elements is traditionally symbolized by the House of Orange. Its rule is not merely that of a "stabilizing element" which all monarchists claim for all monarchies, no matter how unstable. The House of Orange is the spokesman for the people—for all elements of the people. The Netherlands' three million Catholics are as enthusiastically loyal to the intensely Protestant House of Orange as the three and a half million Dutch Protestants; the Catholics understand that the Throne stands for respect of the people's beliefs. Even Dutch Communist Editor A. J. Koeje-mans recently told an American press conference that, while he did not believe in monarchy, the House of Orange-Nassau was an exception that had his allegiance and approval.