It's parliamentary election time next month in the Netherlands, after Balkenende's cabinet fell yet again in late June and hence the
election campaigns are in full swing. I thought it was therefore time to do an election roundup, highlighting some of the more
...interesting... things to happen this time around.
Now the first thing we need to talk about is the Dutch political establishment's discovery of blogs as election tools. The Socialist
Party was once again the first to use this "new" technology seriously, just like they were the first to have websites that were more
than brochureware, but at this point even prime minister Balkenende has one.
The sweet thing is, it has even less comments on post than this blog usually has!
What do you think? Is Balkenende as hip as Ché Guevara?
Meanwhile the CDA's personality cult surrounding Balkenende goes so far as to create t-shirts with his image on them, ala Ché
Guevara, which you can buy from their youth organisation's webstore. Believe me, I've been
tempted.
For main opposition party PvdA (Dutch labour party) there is less good news. the party has always been popular with Turkish immigrants,
but this popularity is fast disappearing after the party removed three Turkish candidates from its election list. The reason for this
being that these candidates did not support the party's viewpoint on the Armenian
Genocide, the party's standpoint being that it happened, the candidates point that it didn't. The latter is shared by many if not most
Turks and has led to small demonstrations against the party as well as many Turks either to vote for a different party or not bothering to
vote at all. I'm also worried what the various xenophobic "heirs of Fortuyn" parties will make of this, as they are very good in hiding their
xenophobia under a veneer of concern for liberal or enlightment values...
The good news on this front is that the "heirs of Fortuyn" have splintered into four different parties, none of which are predicted to do
very well. Currently these parties have nine seats in parliament (one for Geert Wilders, eight for the LPF, Fortuyn's old party), but
in the latest polls well to get two (one for Wilders and one for newcomer 1NL, a spinoff of the Rotterdam local party Leefbaar Rotterdam,
for which Fortuyn stood as a candidate just months before his murder, none for the LPF). In general it seems the voters are sick of
the issues on which these parties distinguish themselves, mainly immigration and security, hence their low showing.
Also doing badly, the D66, founded forty years ago to reform the Duch electorial system and failing miserably ecver since. They have no
discernable ideology, no real ideas other than "dudes, let's directly elect the prime minister" and no credibility anymore after years of
political opportunitism.
Doing much better is the Socialist Party, going from nine to fifteen seats if the polls are to be believed, continuing their slow but
steady rise. Much more surprising than that though is the rise of the ChristenUnie, a party that was the result of the fusion in 2001
of two small, Christian parties and that is looking at a doubling of its number of seats, from three to six. What is happening there
is probably that a lot of leftwing Christian voters have been disappointed in the increasingly rightwing posture of the CDA, the main
Christian party and are now supporting the ChristenUnie, which does follow a largely leftwing course. Where the CDA is emphasising law
and order Christianity, the ChristenUnie is emphasising the feed the hungry and clothe the poor Christianity, far more attractive to a
lot of people.
That's about it for interesting Dutch election news, other than the possibility that next year we may have a centre-left or even leftist
government. Here's hoping!
This is just a place for me to jot down some random thoughts and reactions to the news so I don't have to yell at the television or radio, or mutter to myself whilst reading the news.
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Encyclopedia Astronautica
Incredibly cool site about the history of space travel, with lots of info about
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The Loom
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Pharyngula
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Real Climate
A commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists.
