Purple is a common term in politics for governments or other political entities consisting of parties that have red and blue as their

political colour Political colours are colours used to represent a political ideology, movement or party, either officially or unofficially. It is the intersection of colour symbolism and political symbolism. Parties in different countries with similar ideol ...

s. It is of particular note in three countries. In the politics of

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, ''purple'' ( nl, paars) is the term for a government coalition of social democrats and liberals, excluding

christian democrats __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

. It is derived from the combination of the colour of the social democrats (red) and liberals (blue).

Netherlands

Kok cabinets

In the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

the two cabinets of Prime Minister

Wim Kok Willem "Wim" Kok (; 29 September 1938 – 20 October 2018) was a Dutch politician and trade union leader who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 August 1994 until 22 July 2002.Kok I and Kok II, 1994–2002) were composed of social democratic PvdA, conservative liberal VVD and social liberal D66.

Purple-plus

In the

2010 Dutch cabinet formation Following the Dutch general election of 2010, held on 9 June, a process of cabinet formation started, which typically involves three phases: # exploring with which parties to form a coalition, # negotiating to draft a coalition agreement (Dutch: ...

the possibilities for a "Purple-plus" cabinet (the original purple coalition of PvdA, VVD, D66 as well as GroenLinks) was investigated. Since 5 November 2012, following the

2012 Dutch general election Early general elections were held in the Netherlands on 12 September 2012 after Prime Minister Mark Rutte handed in his government's resignation to Queen Beatrix on 23 April. The 150 seats of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands wer ...

, the VVD has been the senior partner in the second Rutte cabinet, a

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there are ...

Purple government with the PvdA. In October 2013 the second Rutte cabinet (VVD and PvdA), which has no majority in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, reached a budgetary agreement with D66 and the smaller

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

parties Christian Union (CU) and the

Reformed Political Party The Reformed Political Party ( nl, Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij, SGP) is a conservative CalvinistThese sources describe the SGP as a Calvinist political party: * * * * * political party in the Netherlands. The term ''Reformed'' is not a refere ...

(SGP). This occasional coalition is nicknamed "purple plus the Bible" (''Paars met de Bijbel'') as it includes the purple parties VVD, PvdA and D66 plus the Bible-minded parties CU and SGP. The term "purple plus the Bible" had already been used in February that year, when the same parties reached an agreement on modernising the housing market. Then-Minister of Finance, Jeroen Dijsselbloem (PvdA) called D66, CU and SGP his "most beloved opposition parties". The three parties were influential on the policy of the second Rutte cabinet, because without their support new parliamentary elections were inevitable. In the municipal elections of 19 March 2014 D66, CU and SGP did well. D66 for instance, became the biggest party in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

and

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

, beating the PvdA. The CU became the biggest party in

Zwolle Zwolle () is a city and municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Overijssel and the province's second-largest municipality after Enschede with a population of 130,592 as of 1 December 2021. Zwolle is on ...

, hometown of CU-leader Arie Slob. All three parties were rewarded for their so-called "constructive co-operation" with the cabinet. However, the coalition parties VVD and PvdA lost a lot of seats (PvdA lost its plurality in Amsterdam, The Hague,

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte (river), Rotte'') is the second largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the Prov ...

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of t ...

etc. and the VVD did equally bad).

Belgium

In Belgian politics, the term is used as a term for the two federal governments of Prime Minister

Guy Verhofstadt Guy Maurice Marie Louise Verhofstadt (; ; born 11 April 1953) is a Belgian politician who was the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe from 2009 to 2019, and has been a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Belgium ...

, from 1999 to 2008. These cabinets consisted of the Flemish and Francophone social-democratic parties ( SP.A and PS) and the Flemish and Francophone liberal parties ( Flemish Liberals and Democrats and the Liberal Reformist Party, which later became Open VLD and the Reformist Movement). The first government also included the Flemish and Francophone

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

parties Agalev (now known as

Groen Groen or de Groen is a surname of Dutch origin, meaning ''green''.

) and

Ecolo Ecolo, officially Écologistes Confédérés pour l'organisation de luttes originales'', (English: Confederate Ecologists for the Organisation of Original Struggles)'' is a French-speaking political party in Belgium based on green politics. The ...

. In a September 2022 interview, Bart de Wever, mayor of

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, described Belgium as currently "purple-green".

Finland

Besides the Benelux countries, purple coalitions have also presented in Finland, which have been called "red-blue coalitions" since

1980s File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 420px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ease tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the ...

, eventhough those governments have been formed by social democratic SDP and

centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...

NCP. Larger majority red-blue coalitions have also been called "rainbow coalitions" because large present of the parties from

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

via greens to conservative liberal

Swedish People's Party of Finland The Swedish People's Party of Finland ( sv, Svenska folkpartiet i Finland (SFP); fi, Suomen ruotsalainen kansanpuolue (RKP)) is a political party in Finland aiming to represent the interests of the minority Swedish-speaking population of Finlan ...

References