There's a dispute between the two main government parties, the socialist PvdA (Labour Party) and the CDA (Christian Party). The Netherlands are currently involved in Afghanistan with military personnel. The Dutch population have long said that they do not see any purpose in having our soldiers stay there anymore, since it's basically none of our business and we've done our part in the mission. The CDA (along with the CU, another Christian government party) want to extend the duration of the Dutch mission. The PvdA on the other hand have always said to be strongly against any extension. The history of the opinion of the PvdA on alot of controversial issues has been very irregular. The party-leader of the PvdA has often been critizied for not having a solid opinion by which he stands, instead he just goes with whatever serves him best in the current situation.

In a month The Netherlands will have municipal elections, which is seen as a sort of a benchmark for what people would vote if there were national elections. So in this time every party starts to crazy shit (in my eyes at least) to start racking up the votes. The PvdA and CDA are both big losers in the election polls and keep losing voters to more right-wing parties such as the VVD and the PVV.

Basically what this is, is the party leader if the PvdA, Wouter Bos, also vice-premier, making a bold statement to show his voters "Look guys I'm a tough guy and am not afraid to make hard decisions". As a result the CDA and PvdA have no trust in eachother to make the cabinet work together and thus it falls. One should know that this is the fourth cabinet led by Balkenende (CDA) and all of them thusfar have failed.

In the past, the current government parties have tried to make anything work, cause everyone knows they're going to lose out on alot of votes of it would come to elections, so they're just hanging on their seats for as long as possible, while the opposition, mainly Geert Wilders (PVV) tries to jump on every little conflict that exists cause they are regarded as the possible big winners in elections.

Long story short, parties are one-trick ponies and try to do something flashy once every 4 years so the voting public doesn't fall alseep by the incredibly boring and socially backward current socialist-christian cabinet.

It seems any country in the world goes into "righteousness overdrive" when major elections are knocking on their door.