Our turn to choose – Netherlands elections

Scorpio 2023

I’m not sure having run-ups to elections in Scorpio season is a good idea, knives are sharpened and the black and white attitude of Scorpio can be emphasised, leading to much polarisation. We do get impassioned debates sometimes though. However, on November 22nd, and by the end of that day we are just into Sagittarius, we have to make a decision. There is no ‘maybe’ if you are going to exercise your right to vote. I am finding this year the most difficult yet. We have a choice between 26 parties! Luckily fewer than last time … but still.

Logos from the participating parties 2023 NL elections. There seems to be one missing! Image from Stemwijzer site.

Democracy is broken

As it is in many places, the system does not really work in a democratic way any more. Here in the Netherlands, we must go along with EU decisions, and if the governing coalition has a majority, they always push through their will. This has clearly been the case with the latest Mark Rutte cabinet, which fell earlier this year. Having four parties in a coalition always makes it difficult to reach a consensus, which is why the last formation of government took a very long time. It is also the reason the cabinet fell. It took a record 271 days to form a government and fears are that this year, when we really need a working government, it will be very tricky again. The system just doesn’t work fairly any more. I, for one, feel like I have no say at all in what has been happening.

Fascinating and worrying

As always, I find the astrology fascinating. We have a whole new landscape of politicians at the top, which is also riveting for me! But I can’t see how it’s going to work, especially for the issues I care about. Many parties agree on several of the big issues, so how to tell them apart? We have a ‘StemWijzer’, which you can fill in and it shows you which parties align with your views. If I fill it in, the top one for me is surprising to say the least. It is a party I would never vote for!

Many use the StemWijzer to help with a decision, since nobody wants to read 26 manifestos! However, it is clearly biased. The things I really care about are for the most part absent! For those of you who have a vote in the Netherlands, Partijpeiler covers more issues and compares your answers to how parties have actually voted in the past, rather than to what they say now. In my case, it shows a better match for my concerns.

Back to astrology and elections

I have written on Dutch elections in the past, in 2017 and in 2021, and in both of these I used the chart for the Netherlands. To reiterate what I said in one of these: I believe a country ‘attracts’ a leader that aligns with its character. I want to use the same technique this year, which means I have work to do, as the top challengers are nearly all new. Mark Rutte, who was a very good fit with the Dutch chart, is getting out of politics after 11 years at the helm. After Covid and some scandals, many are very happy about this! Some just think that is long enough to hold a post.

The top 5 in the election polls

I will cover the leaders of the five parties currently at the top of polls as I write. These are:

1. The VVD (The People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy) Mark Rutte’s party, who now have a woman of Turkish origin (hurrah in terms of difference at the top!) Her name is Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius. The VVD is described as centre-right.

2. Pieter Omtzigt is a former member of the CDA (Christian Democrats), who has now started his own party. He has been treated appallingly by the CDA and the last cabinet, and stopped working for a while to recover from a burnout. He has now come back and is doing extremely well in the polls and is very near the top. His party is called NSC (New Social Contract). Omtzigt is mainly focussed on better governance and ensuring a decent standard of living for all. He has previously said he doesn’t want to be the Prime Minister, but he is now more nuanced about it, although he appears to be losing support for not being clear about this decision.

3. The combination of PvdA (Labour party) and Groenlinks (Green left), is now headed by Frans Timmermans. Timmermans was a previous member of parliament and Foreign Minister until he took up a post in the EU, eventually as Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for the European Green Deal. This new combo party is doing pretty well, and is number three in most polls at the moment. So combining to form a ‘Left block’ seems to be advantageous.

4. The party which was currently fourth in the polls when I started this post has been a bit of a surprise to many. As I edit it has moved up even further! The PVV (Freedom Party) led by Geert Wilders is the only one I have written about before. Wilders has been at the head of the PVV since he started it in 2006. The party is best known for its fight against what they call ‘Islamisation’ of the Netherlands, and its disapproval of the EU.  The situation around immigration and refugees is probably the main factor in the rise of popularity for this party.

5. The BBB party, headed by Caroline van der Plas, has slipped in the polls lately, mainly due to the participation of the new NSC party. The BoerBurgerBeweging (Farmer Citizen Movement) swept the floor in the provincial elections recently, so they hold the power in our First Chamber, which makes it really interesting for parliament – our Second Chamber  – to get laws approved. The party is best known for protecting farmers from strict environmental rules (mostly from the EU) and compulsory shutting down of their farms. In other areas they identify as centre-right.

Here, I need to look at two people, as van der Plas does not want to be Prime Minister. Since she wants to focus on the Netherlands, rather than international issues, she has named her second on the BBB list as a potential PM. Mona Keijzer is a former member of the CDA (Christian Democrats), who was fired from her post as Secretary of State for Economics and Climate policy in 2021, for stepping out of line by disagreeing on Covid measures. She gets points from me on that one!

Ok – let’s get to the astrology

In 2017 I said:

Who is the Netherlands trying to attract as a leader? The chart I use for the Netherlands has the Sun in Pisces. It has Cancer ascending and an Aquarius MC, which is the point I associate with mission and goals. These are the three points I would use for branding. The Sun for the heart of the nation, the Ascendant to represent image and the MC to show reputation. So leaders have an advantage if they can personally match these qualities.

In 2021 I said:

Description of leaders for Netherlands

I use the Sun to describe leadership or management that fits with the entity, in this case a country. A fitting leader for the Netherlands would need to have many qualities, which I ascertain from the following archetypes. (Aspects to the Sun – for you astrologers out there.) They are Pisces, Moon, Mercury, Ceres, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto – quite an ask  – and it would be unusual for anyone to have all of these.

In summary this would mean a leader who is (using the positives of these archetypes) compassionate, family and country-oriented, communicative, ‘green’, democratic, result-oriented and a good manager, as well as being someone who can take control.

So putting these two things together (2017 and 2021) I made a table of who has these archetypes.

 

 

Netherlands leaders	Pieter Omtzigt	Dilan Yeşilgöz	Frans Timmermans	Geert Wilders	Caroline van der Plas and Mona Keijzer	Rob Jetten
Party	NSC	VVD	PvdA-GL	PVV	BBB	D66
Sun sign→	Capricorn	Gemini	Taurus	Virgo	Gemini Libra(Mona)	Aries
Archetypes needed↓
Pisces Neptune			Yes	Yes		Mercury Yes
Cancer Moon	Moon Possible	Moon		NNode Possible	Mercury Venus Ceres
Aquarius	Venus Jupiter		Jupiter	Saturn		Venus Moon
Mercury	Yes	Yes (Sun)	Yes		Yes (Sun)
Ceres	Yes	Yes
Saturn	Yes (Sun)				Mona Yes only one she has
Pluto				Yes	Yes	Yes

Mona Keizer has very few of these archetypes present – only Saturn. So her match with the NL chart is minimal.

 

I have snuck in Rob Jetten who is the leader of D66. He has some good connections with the NL chart. In the latest polls he has caught up to BBB but D66 are still a long way below where they were.

Analysis

Taking the categories one at a time:

NL is a Pisces

The NL chart has the Sun in Pisces. The country, at its heart, wants a compassionate, intuitive leader. Three of these leaders have this Pisces quality: Timmermans, Wilders and Jetten. They are not Pisces themselves but they have the Sun picking up Neptune which has a similar feel and potential. So they are a good match here. Jetten also has Mercury in Pisces, so he is able to communicate in line with what the country wants.

NL has Cancer rising

The Ascendant or rising sign shows how the Netherlands come across. It has to do with image. So anyone having this archetype featured, fits with the image that NL wants to portray. Cancer is family oriented and patriotic. It also wants safety, with food and shelter being important. Omtzigt and Yeşilgöz have the Moon in Cancer (whatever their birth times) so what they need on a personal level (Moon), is in line with the country’s image. They will both have a need to protect families, women, children and the country as a whole.

Van der Plas has a lot of Cancer energy, so she is aligned in terms of her Mercury, Venus and Ceres. She wants to speak, write and communicate on these issues. She has said she wants to focus on domestic issues and not on international ones. This is the reason she doesn’t want to be the PM. With Venus in Cancer, she values her home and country and wants to look after the food supply, hence her support of farmers. With Ceres here she will lobby for all citizens of the Netherlands, and I think she will be a fighter for clean water.

Geert Wilders has the karmic North Node in Cancer. He is somehow connected to the NL image and he is indeed well-known outside of the Netherlands for his stance on being patriotic (Cancer) to NL culture and traditions.

NL has the Sun and Moon connected

There are two possible candidates who have this quality, but a birth time is needed to confirm that. If Wilders and Omtzigt have this it would give them an even bigger focus on these Cancerian qualities.

NL has an Aquarius mission and reputation

The Netherlands wants to be seen as an innovative country with equal rights and freedoms. There are four leaders with this archetype. Omtzigt and Jetten hold these values dear, with Venus in this sign. Jetten also has the Moon in Aquarius (no matter what time he is born), so he needs a home and a country where these freedoms are a given. This is also important for him as he is gay, and he often speaks up for the rights of homosexuals, including in terms of being parents.

Omtzigt and Timmermans both have Jupiter in Aquarius. They ‘believe’ in these values and their political views will reflect this. Whether they can implement them is another matter, since other archetypes are most likely more important. Wilders has Saturn in Aquarius. As such, as I mentioned in one of those earlier posts, I think he serves better as someone who can keep NL on track in these areas. He has very ‘strict’ (Saturn) ideas (Aquarius), especially when it comes to Islam.

NL and Mercury

The Netherlands is known for its history of trading and its ability to communicate on the global stage. Many Dutch people speak several languages. It is also a country known for coalitions. Interestingly, the Netherlands also has Ceres in Gemini, so it favours a ‘network’ kind of democratic system too. So any leaders would have an advantage if they have the ability to network and to communicate well. The best leaders here are Yeşilgöz and van der Plas, due to the fact they are both Geminis, which gives them these qualities. I am going to give them an extra point here because they align well with the Ceres of NL too. Timmermans (who speaks 6 languages fluently) and Omtzigt also score well here as, like the Netherlands, they have the Sun close to Mercury.

Ceres and NL

There are two leaders here who have Ceres and the Sun in contact, which is the same as the NL chart. Interestingly Timmermans is not one of them, which is surprising as Ceres is the green goddess and Timmermans’ main project in the EU was the Green New Deal! He does however have Ceres and Venus together in Aries – so that makes him a fighter for valuing our environment. But his leadership skills are elsewhere.

The two that do include Ceres in their leading skills are Omtzigt and Yeşilgöz. Ceres can work in different ways, I think here it means they will lead with democratic principles and will strive for women’s rights and those of underdogs. They will also champion environmental causes.

NL and Saturn

Apart from Mona Keijzer, who has only this one matching quality, the only leader that has this quality as a leader is Pieter Omtzigt. He is a responsible Capricorn and his program is all about restructuring Dutch politics, and taking responsibility for providing a decent standard of living for everyone. This makes him an excellent manager and a watchdog I think, but not necessarily a strong leader. I think he is quite aware of his gifts which is maybe why he doesn’t really want to be the Prime Minister.

Lastly NL and Pluto

For the size of the Netherlands, the country holds quite a lot of power on the world stage. The International Court of Justice is based in the Hague, and the Netherlands has become an international epicentre in Europe, with many headquarters based here, especially since BREXIT. Rotterdam is also a major port in Europe.

However, some parties are concerned about the English language taking over, especially at universities. Fittingly for a Pisces (water) country, NL is a leader in controlling (Pluto) water, which could well be advantageous in the future. This archetype suggests that candidates who can take control and make strong decisions fit the leader profile.

There are only three of these with the Sun picking up Pluto, although others have the Scorpio/Pluto archetype expressed in other areas. (As leaders of parties it would be weird if they didn’t!) They are Rob Jetten, Geert Wilders and Caroline van der Plas. Potentially these three could be passionate people leaders, who have carried out good political research and are able to sway voters. They are capable of taking tough decisions, a character trait that would be very useful in the current climate.

Birth times

Of course, if we had birth times, the Moon’s placement could be confirmed, as well as ascendants and the midheaven mission points. So some leaders might have contacts in these areas with the preferred archetypes. Clearly, my conclusion can’t include these factors, but I will try anyway, even though it is nowhere near as clear cut as it was for Mark Rutte!

Conclusion

One of my conclusions is that since we have no stand-out candidate, as we had with Rutte, there is more competition at the top with several candidates doing well. If I give points for each archetype we have: Pieter Omtzigt: 6. Caroline van der Plas and Rob Jetten: 5 , however I am giving van der Plas an extra point so she is on a par with Omtzigt. Geert Wilders: 4, and Dilan Yeşilgöz and Timmermans: 3, however I am also giving Dilan an extra point, so she gets 4.

The fact that Pieter is doing really well in the polls for a brand new party is reflected here. Caroline is next on my list so her belief that she will do better than the polls indicate may be right! Having said that, as I edit, she has dropped below Rob, who is next and he has been creeping up in the polls too. So who knows what the cosmos will do? Dilan and Geert follow and Frans has the least points.

It depends which archetype gets the most points from the voters. I don’t think this will be the order of popularity, since not everyone votes for the leader. Some vote for the principles of the parties. If they did vote for a leader, my analysis might be a good indicator. As I write, one newspaper (Volkskrant 18/11/23) shows the order of popularity of leaders as well as the polls for parties, which I also include here:

Faye’s list	Favourite leaders	Parties poll
Omtzigt	Omtzigt	Yeşilgöz VVD
Van de Plas	Yeşilgöz	Omtzigt NSC
Jetten	van der Plas	Timmermans PvdA/GL
Wilders	Wilders	Wilders FVV
Yeşilgöz	Jetten	van der Plas BBB
Timmermans	Timmermans	Jetten D66

So it seems some are going for leaders in the polls and some for parties, as I imagine is always the case. And as I edit this the polls have changed, with Wilders’ PVV leaping up to join the VVD, showing how close it is at the top. I look forward to seeing what happens ‘on the night.’ It was interesting to do this analysis, so I hope some of you enjoy it too!

As an aside

Of the four previous cabinet parties, VVD, CDA (Christian Democrats), D66 (Democrats) and CU (Christian Union), only the VVD (ex Mark Rutte) makes the top four in current polls. Many thought the VVD would get ‘punished’ as well! The CDA and D66 in particular have lost a lot of potential voters. This is one of the reasons that there are many new leaders. VVD, CDA and D66 all have new people at the top.

Another factor – Taurus is strong

Of course, there are many other ways to look at country elections. Astrologers all have their own favourite methods. The only other one I might consider is looking at how candidates fit with the Moon of a country. This represents what the citizens of a country need long term – as opposed to what the country as a whole wants. I discussed this when I looked back to US presidents and compared Trump and Biden.

In the case of the Netherlands, the Moon is in Taurus. People who have any planets in Taurus will resonate with what people feel they need. With the exception of Wilders, all of the others researched here do! The main one is Frans Timmermans who is a Taurus, with his Mercury there too. He is said to be very stubborn! The Dutch however like the pragmatic character of this sign.

Yeşilgöz has both Mars and Venus in Taurus, Omtzigt and Jetten also have Mars there. Van der Plas probably has her Moon there (as does her running mate Mona Keijzer). It will be interesting when any of these combinations have to lock stubborn horns over the coalition forming. Perhaps Wilders is at a disadvantage here.

Election Day – what do the people want?

One of the main things I look at in a chart for the closing of the polls is the Moon. This is because it shows the mood of the people on voting day. I also look at the Sun and Ceres. The Sun is a spotlight on leadership, which makes sense for a voting day, and Ceres is the planet I associate with democracy, or the voting system. She is a go-between for Mars – personal will, and Jupiter – politics. So she is important in terms of what people want in politics and voting.

Strongly Scorpio

It is an interesting day for an election, as both the Sun and the Moon change sign during the day. At the start of voting the Sun is in Scorpio, right next to Mars and Ceres. This suggests to me that voters want a huge change in politics. It feels to me that revenge will be expressed! It is a reckoning of what have been seen as past abuses of power. A black and white ‘never again’ for some parties. This is pretty clear in the polls when it comes to two of the last cabinet parties, who are low in the polls. I think if Mark Rutte had stayed, this would have happened to the VVD as well! Ceres on voting day says we want people in charge who are decisive leaders.

What’s up with the Moon?

The Moon is next to Neptune in Pisces at the start of the day. This suggests to me that even on voting day, many, as I am, are confused about which party or politician to choose. As the Moon moves to Aries, it may be “Ok, I’ll just choose this one then!” Again it suggests an angry populace who want something new. The aspects with the Moon during the day also highlight this.

The end of the day

It is fascinating that at the very end of voting we have Sun, Moon and the Ascendant all at the beginning of three fire signs. Indeed an indication of a new pioneering start. Well, that’s the potential. It could mean the downsides of these three signs! The proud winners sticking to their own philosophies and fighting over manifestos, unable to reach compromises to form a government. The approaching aspect of the Sun to Saturn might give hope for responsible leadership, but could also mean a long cabinet formation period. Time will tell.

Wish me luck!

Faye Blake

Websites of the month

An article with some background to these elections for those interested. Dutchifying the vote.

Voor Nederlandse stemmers – alle stemwijzers op een rij. Plus Partijpeiler

Quote of the month

For astrologers

Astrologers use different times of day to look at elections. My choice is the end of polling, as I feel that’s a decisive moment. That is 22nd November at 21:00, in our capital, Amsterdam.

The Netherlands: 16 March 1815, 10:13, The Hague, NL

Dilan Yesilgöz: 18 June 1977, Ankara, Turkey, time unknown.

Frans Timmermans: 6 May 1961, Maastricht, NL, time unknown.

Pieter Omtzigt: 8 January 1974, Den Haag, NL, time unknown.

Geert Wilders: 6 September 1963, Venlo, NL, time unknown.

Caroline van der Plas: 6 June 1967, Cuijk, NL, time unknown.

Mona Keijzer: 9 October 1968, Edam, NL, time unknown.

Rob Jetten: 25 March 1987, Uden, NL, time unknown.