Increasingly this has led to concerns over the costs involved, and worries that this trend might lead to a rise in support for extreme right-wing nationalist parties. Since 1994 asylum laws have been tightened in the Netherlands, as in neighboring countries. In mid-1999 D66 was only persuaded at the eleventh hour not to leave the coalition after a bill providing for wider use of referendums was defeated. Profile Dutch politics are characterized by coalitions and a high degree of consensus. Most Dutch agree on the social function of government and readily accept relatively high taxes and a generous social security system.
Political debate is more a question of the stress and focus of policy than of ideology.