If you live outside Western Europe, you probably only hear about medium-sized European countries like Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, and the Netherlands if they’re doing well in the World Cup. In the case of the Netherlands, non-Europeans might also have read the occasional references to abortion, euthanasia, sex work, and gay marriage (all legal) and soft drugs (semi-legal). To all this the Netherlands owes its aura of degeneracy or progressiveness, depending on one’s perspective.

What you don’t often read about is the position of the Netherlands in the international financial system. It is — together with Ireland and Luxembourg — a vital European tax heaven. Much more so than even Germany, the Netherlands was the forerunner in a beggar-thy-neighbor race to the bottom and remains the closest American NATO ally in mainland Western Europe.

It’s no surprise, then, that the domestic policies of states like the Netherlands are important to those organizing in other countries — and we should all be hoping for a left-wing breakthrough there. Here are three reasons why.