What does it mean that the Dutch Government collapsed?
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The Netherlands has a Parliamentary system of Government. This means a government “collapsing” is not like the country or whole system collapsing. It’s actually quite normal. It simply means there’s going to eventually be a change in administration via a new election.
In the Netherlands, Members of Parliament (MPs) make the laws, but these Members also decide (and can fire) who will administer the laws, known as the Government.
The Netherlands has two Houses of Parliament, but only their Lower House has a say in who makes up the Government.
It’s like if Congress in the US (specifically the House of Representatives) appointed the President from among their members and also could fire them at any time. The President would always need to have a majority of votes of Members in the House to keep in office.
In the Netherlands Parliament, no party usually has a majority of MPs, thanks to an electoral system that gives parties MPs based on their share of the overall vote rather than who wins in specific districts. Several parties had to come to an agreement to share power to secure thr votes of a majority of MPs, so they could then legally choose who would make up the Government.
Those parties have now disagreed on a key issue, which is so important that they are willing to split the coalition up, and now a new Government needs to be formed through a new election to break the deadlock.
(Technically, it’s the Dutch Crown who appoints and fires the government but they have very little discretionary power and the above way is the practical, legal and conventional way that appointment is effected.)
TL;DR: Dutch Government collapsing simply means those Members of Parliament who had agreed to support each other to have a majority of votes in Parliament no longer support each other.
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