The governing coalition in the Netherlands was brought down Saturday, unable to bridge a divide between Christian Democrats and socialists over whether or not to keep forces in Afghanistan after 2010.

For the fouth time, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende had to announce that a government of his had come to its end prematurely. His previous three cabinets were all formed with the right-wing liberal party. After the general elections of November 2006, the prime minister was forced to come to a coalition with his primary political rival, Labor Party leader Wouter Bos. Repeated disagreements between both partnering factions were often fought out in public; specifically, over the raising of the retirement age and about how to cut on goverment spending after the recession struck the country in 2008.

Wouter Bos promised voters during the 2006 elections that he would bring the Dutch troops home and not extend participation in the ISAF mission beyond 2010. When President Barack Obama called upon NATO allies to pitch in, the Christian Democrats, the majority party, entertained the notion of remaining in Afghanistan, with fewer forces and in another part of the country than the province of Oruzgan where currently, about 1,500 Dutchmen are posted.

The Dutch were deployed to Oruzgan in 2006 and originally supposed to stay for two years. That mandate was extended another two years to August 2010 in spite of mounting public opposition against the mission.

Throughout the past several days, Balkenende tried to find a compromise which would allow the Dutch to extend their presence. The Labor Party, intent on keepings its promise, pulled out of the coalition after a sixteen-hour cabinet meeting Friday night failed to deliver any results. New elections must take place within fewer than twelve weeks.

There are also elections upcoming for local governments, March 3. The Labor Party hasn’t been polling well recently. Generally, voters blame it for compromising too much on traditional left-wing issues, allowing the center-right Christian Democrats to overshadow it. There is speculation that the elections played a part in Labor’s decision to pull out of the government which would allow the party to distance itself from some of the more unpopular policies recently enacted. Whether it will actually perform better soon seems doubtful however.