Mark Rutte, the coddling Prime Minister

Mark Rutte is a wimp. As in the Republican Party in the United States, the Netherlands has its racists and bigots in political leadership positions, too.

From DutchNews.nl

Prime minister Mark Rutte has refused to comment on a website set up by the anti-immigration PVV to record complaints about central and eastern Europeans in the Netherlands, the Telegraaf reports on Friday.

Asked to react to the initiative during a Thursday evening debate on the European Union, Rutte said it is not up to him to comment on positions taken by individual political parties.

New poll up today at DutchNews.nl: "Should the prime minister distance himself from the PVV's anti-Pole website?"

‎"Distance himself..."?? Well, isn't that just nice and dandy. Rutte should denounce Wilders' and the PVV's bigotry from the rooftops of the Binnenhof and the Knight's Hall and not take these people seriously (no decent person would). He should have done it a long time ago. And the media (including DutchNews.nl) should not coddle these idiots, either, but they won't because they are enablers, too.

The Death of a Dutch Minister of State: H.A.F.M.O. (Hans) van Mierlo

My dad always admired this man. Dutch politician and former government minister Hans van Mierlo has died on Thursday, March 11, in an Amsterdam hospital, aged 78.

From the obituary in NRC/international

He himself has now become part of history. Henricus Antonius Franciscus Maria Oliva van Mierlo -- or Hafmo, as his party members affectionately referred to him -- was a philosopher, a bohemian, a romantic, an orator, a bon vivant, a master of paradox, an eternal doubter and yes, of course, also a politician.

Above anything else, he was the political embodiment of the Dutch cultural revolution of the 1960s. The movement that never really became a revolution, because the Netherlands was a country where so-called 'repressive tolerance' quickly made D66 and Van Mierlo himself a part of the system they so maligned. Van Mierlo, who started out a critic of the state, died an honorary Minister of State. He himself would undoubtedly have appreciated the paradox.

Martin Wisse has written an assessment, particularly of Van Mierlo's role as founder of the political party, D66.

Photo: Hans van Mierlo (red scarf) with H.D. (Herman-Diederik) Tjeenk Willink, Vice President of the Council of State, on their way to the Royal Palace, 2009; courtesy P.P.E.

Iraq report: Dutch PM now accepts criticism

It's all over the Dutch media in the last few days. The Dutch PM has reluctantly accepted some of the criticism of the Davids report on Dutch support for the Iraq war. But it's more about politics trumping international law. In the aftermath of the release of the report the blame game among the coalition government about lack of accountability reached near crisis proportions. So will the Davids report just gather dust on a shelf? No accountability or responsibility from Balkenende (Christian that he is) and his cronies for an immoral war, just political shenanigans to save face and avoid a political crisis. "Balkenende said this was not the right moment for a crisis..." That's shameful because the "economic problems" and the war economy are all linked.

From DutchNews.nl:

Crisis talks

The three coalition party leaders spent most of Wednesday in crisis talks to draw up a new response to the report. In Wednesday evening's letter, the prime minister said: 'Based on what we know now, the cabinet accepts that a more adequate legal mandate would have been necessary for such an action.'

Labour's parliamentary leader Mariëtte Hamer said the new statement meant the report had been 'removed from the waste bin'.

But opposition MPs were not so easily appeased. Alexander Pechtold, leader of the Liberal democratic party D66, said he had to ask if Balkenende's initial dismissal of the report was due to 'the arrogance of power' or 'clumsiness'.

Commentators said on Thursday the new statement appeared to have headed off a cabinet crisis.

Before the parliamentary debate on the letter, Balkenende said this was not the right moment for a crisis - referring to the economic problems facing the country.

For the conclusions of the Davids report in English, click here.

RNW: Balkenende Interview

I don't agree with Jan-Peter Balkenende's politics, but I was impressed with this interview and hope RNW does more like it with him.

In an exclusive video interview with the English Department of Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende announced on Wednesday evening that he will suggest to other European countries that they adopt the Dutch ‘polder model' of government.

USA ASKED FOR DUTCH SUPPORT IN IRAQ INVASION

A former US deputy secretary of state says America did ask for military help for the Iraq invasion.

QUESTIONS: DUTCH SUPPORT FOR IRAQ WAR

nrc.nl - International

News & background:-

Dutch considered military support for US invasion

'Iraq memo' opens door to possible government inquiry

Civil servants allegedly kept minister in the dark on Iraq war

Iron curtain still down on involvement in Iraq war

IRAQ

DutchNews.nl

Monday 19 January 2009

Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende's contuing refusal to agree to a public inquiry into events surrounding Dutch support for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is beginning to look like the petulant behaviour of a stubborn teenager.

There are a number of questions which need to be answered about the Dutch position, and continually repeating the same tired arguments is not working.

There is evidence that civil servants had their doubts about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, doubts which the government of the day - led by Balkenende himself - ignored. The Dutch also ignored the fact there was no UN mandate for action. [read the rest]

FOOD FOR THOUGHT FOR THE DUTCH...

John Vanocur writes in the IHT:-

From the left, a call to end the current Dutch notion of tolerance

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, the Netherlands had lived through something akin to a populist revolt against accommodating Islamic immigrants led by Pim Fortuyn, who was later murdered; the assassination of the filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, accused of blasphemy by a homegrown Muslim killer; and the bitter departure from the Netherlands of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali woman who became a member of Parliament before being marked for death for her criticism of radical Islam.

Now something fairly remarkable is happening again.

Two weeks ago, the country's biggest left-wing political grouping, the Labor Party, which has responsibility for integration as a member of the coalition government led by the Christian Democrats, issued a position paper calling for the end of the failed model of Dutch "tolerance."

It came at the same time Nicolas Sarkozy was making a case in France for greater opportunities for minorities that also contained an admission that the French notion of equality "doesn't work anymore."

But there was a difference. If judged on the standard scale of caution in dealing with cultural clashes and Muslims' obligations to their new homes in Europe, the language of the Dutch position paper and Lilianne Ploumen, Labor's chairperson, was exceptional.

The paper said: "The mistake we can never repeat is stifling criticism of cultures and religions for reasons of tolerance."

NON-SAINT BERNHARD

By Eric Beauchemin Radio Netherlands Press Review 22 February 2008 -

The revelations published yesterday [links in English and Dutch] regarding bribes received by the late Dutch Prince Consort in the 1960s and '70s continue to make the headlines of today's papers. It was already known that Prince Bernhard had received bribes from the US aircraft manufacturer Lockheed, but a book published yesterday disclosed that another aircraft company, Northrop, gave the prince 750.000 dollars.

The affair was covered up by the then prime minister Joop den Uyl because former Queen Juliana threatened to abdicate and her daughter, Beatrix, allegedly said that under those circumstances she would not ascend the throne.

House of cards

Politicians from Den Uyl's Labour Party have expressed understanding for his decision to cover up the affair. As one senior Labour politician put it, if he hadn't "the whole house of cards would have collapsed". De Telegraaf writes that the Dutch parliamentarians have reacted unenthusiastically to the revelations. It quotes one MP as saying "it's old news", but the opposition Green Left party has asked for clarifications from the prime minister. It believes that a secret addendum to a report on the Lockheed affair, which contains the revelations, should now be published. The editorialist of de Volkskrant agrees: it was understandable that Joop den Uyl wanted to avoid a constitutional crisis, but he shouldn't have given in to the threats made by Queen Juliana or her daughter.

U.S. ASKS HOLLAND TO TAKE GUANTANAMO SUSPECTS

DutchNews.nl - 26 October 2007 -

The US foreign affairs department has asked the Netherlands to take over a number of prisoners from its Guantanamo Bay camp on the island of Cuba, the Parool reports on Friday.

The paper says the request was made to Dutch MPs who are on a fact-finding mission at the highly controversial camp.

The request for help applies to prisoners who are being released from the detention camp but cannot return to their country of origin.

Some 800 people have been through Guantanamo Bay since its opening in 2002. The camp currently houses some 400 prisoners, 85 of whom are waiting to be released because the US no longer considers them to be a danger.

The Dutch foreign affairs ministry has told the Parool that it has not received a request from the US to take over prisoners. Until it does, the Dutch position is that the US must look after prisoners on its own territory.

The right-wing Liberal (VVD) and anti-immigration PVV parties both welcome the idea of taking over prisoners from Guantanamo. 'It will be a great day when the Netherlands has such a detention centre of its own,' PVV leader Geert Wilders tells the paper.

The Christian Democrats are less keen on the idea, the paper says.

Officially, the Netherlands considers the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay a contravention of international agreements, a point made by foreign minister Maxime Verhagen when he met US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in April.

UNILEVER STRIKE

24oranges - Hema’s famous smoked sausage is made by Unox in Oss, a disgruntled Unilever (Unox is owned by Unilever) employee told the Brabants Dagblad during the strike. Unilever ["Ons beleid is niet te spreken over onze klanten"] and Hema ["Wij doen nooit uitspraken over onze leveranciers"] have refused to comment on the comment.

Some 1,000 employees have come together in Rotterdam to try and get more say about Unilever’s future and want better working conditions, etc. All six manufacturing plants are on strike. And if the management pisses them off some more, who knows what culinary or cosmetic secrets will come out next.

COMMENT: I gotta admit that I love HEMA products; the store is the Dutch equivalent of Target. But these Dutch capitalist giants are acting like attorneys or doctors; neither will talk about or against the other - they protect their "own." So much for Unilever's claim that it is a "responsible business."

No Electronic Voting in the Netherlands

DutchNews.nl -

Red pencils to return to polling stations
Thursday 27 September 2007

Traditional ballot papers should replace voting computers at election time until all problems with electronic voting have been removed, concludes a government commission set up to look at Dutch voting systems.

The commission also said that the time is not yet right to allow people to vote by internet.

The old-fashioned ballot paper is preferable because it is easier to control the outcome of the vote, the commission said. It is extremely difficult to check results stored in a computer's memory, the commission said.

Junior home affairs minister Ank Bijleveld told ANP news service that it was now extremely likely that voting in the next scheduled election – for the European parliament in 2009 – would be done using the traditional red pencil and paper.

The commission also recommends that voters be allowed to cast their vote at any polling station, as long as they can prove their identity.

COMMENT: The Korthals Altes Committee investigation into the voting process and this final report (Dutch .pdf), entitled Vote with Confidence, was prompted by hackers' easy ability to get into the system. Two important points -

• The current electronic voting machines do not comply with basic voting requirement (transparency, controllability, integrity)
• The paper ballot still offers the best way to comply

The decision is temporary, but let's hope it becomes permanent. Would the US Federal and Secretaries of State want such transparency and integrity in our voting system? Don't count on it. Our own Vermont SoS seems to believe in the efficiency and reliability of the current ballot optical scanning system; although her office claims to take all 'reports' seriously, she has not followed the recommendations of the Brennan Center report assessing the threats to the most commonly used types of voting technology. That report concluded that direct record electronic (DRE) machines, both with and without a contemporaneous paper record and paper-based optical scan voting systems were susceptible to fraud and manipulation, if appropriate procedures were not in place.

Prinsjesdag - 18 september 2007

Today, the queen has read out her "troonrede" ("speech from the throne") before the Dutch parliament in Den Haag. It's not exactly hers, but an outline of the government's plans for the coming year.

Prinsjesdag is somewhat analogous to the President's State of the Union speech (SOU is not required by our Constitution btw, just an address. George Washington and John Adams both delivered the address in person. It was deliberately modelled on the Speech from the Throne with which the framers of the constitution were familiar from their British heritage. Thomas Jefferson began the tradition of sending a written message because, as a staunch republican, he thought a speech was too monarchical. It was Wilson who delivered the first SOU before a joint session of Congress.)

Usually, reporters & other "talking heads" rip the SOU to shreds. Similar commentary and criticisms will happen today in the Netherlands.

Here's the 'gouden koets' (golden coach) en route to parliament.



Read more about Prinsjesdag on wikipedia.

Dutch politician sets up Committee for ex-Muslims

Ehsan Jami, the eloquent, Persian-born, PVdA (Labour Party) polititican, committee founder, the Dutch male Hirsi Ali... much debated/debating rising star...best protected man in NL nowadays... who rejected Islam after the attack on the twin towers in 2001, has received death threats by Muslims, was physically attacked a few weeks ago and forced into hiding.

Mr Jami, 22, who has abandoned his studies as his political career has taken off, denied that the choice of September 11 was deliberately provocative towards the Islamic Establishment. “We chose the date because we want to make a clear statement that we no longer tolerate the intolerence of Islam, the terrorist attacks,” he said.

“In 1965 the Church in Holland made a declaration that freedom of conscience is above hanging on to religion, so you can choose whether you are going to be a Christian or not. What we are seeking is the same thing for Islam.”

But Maryam Namazie, chair of the Council of ex-Muslims in the UK who came to The Hague to sign a declaration of support for Ehsan Jami, doesn't see anything wrong with the date.

"If you're against the slaughter of people who were going about their daily business like New York and you're criticizing the movement that was responsible, what does that have to do with ordinary Muslims? I think that this is what political Islam often tries to do: equate themselves with all Muslims as a way of saying: 'If you criticise it, you're racist, you're attacking all Muslims'. That's not the case."

We are not amused....

It happened a year ago; the story broke at the end of August. Everyone's not amused with Wiki, apparently, so why not a Royal Edit?

ASSOCIATED PRESS -

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A Dutch royal couple acknowledges altering a Wikipedia entry about a 2003 scandal that forced the prince to renounce his claim to the throne.

Prince Johan Friso, son of the reigning Queen Beatrix, and Princess Mabel of Oranje-Nassau are the latest to be embarrassed in a spate of discoveries of vanity changes to Wikipedia entries. Such self-serving amendments are frowned upon in the Web encyclopedia that "anyone can edit."

The original scandal broke in 2003 when Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende refused to support the prince's marriage to the princess, then known as Mabel Wisse Smit.

If you want to be amused: Dutch royals caught revising Wikipedia
by Toby Sterling, Associated Press Writer, 30 August 2007

Something is Rotten in the Netherlands

RADIO NETHERLANDS by Eric Hesen 24 August 2007 -

In recent years, things had been relatively quiet with regard to the extreme right groups in the Netherlands. But the neo-Nazis appear to be making a high-profile comeback. And more violent than ever. Arson, vandalism and even firearms seem to be par for the course nowadays. Gradually the police and the authorities seem to be realising the danger.

In a Rotterdam court this week, eleven youths are facing prison sentences of up to two-and-a-half years for arson, vandalism and intimidation in the town of Almere. Neo-Nazi Arris de Bruin also appeared in court this month after the police discovered weapons, ammunition and explosives at his home.

According to the Anne Frank Foundation, such cases are only the tip of the iceberg. Its annual survey issued this week revealed that there were 67 incidents involving extreme right-wing groups last year, almost double the amount in the previous year. (Read all of Eric's report....)

Discussion started

Re: yesterday's post, Recent case of lèse majesté in the Netherlands, Joris, on BRMB, comments:

In De Volkskrant today [link] Peter Rehwinkel (PvdA/Dutch Labour Member of the First Chamber of the States General and Mayor of Naarden) advocated reassessing the difference between lese-majesty and insulting other persons than the Queen. There should be no basic difference. Especially when it comes to the respective different penalties in the Penal Ciode.
I think he is right.
The Queen is just one of the many public figures who could face criticism, insults. The Queen should also given the possibility to sue persons, not just on behalf of her. Now it's done on behalf of her. Also private citizens other than the Queen should be given equal protection from insults.
On one of the newspapers' frontpages a cartoon was published last week of a bruised Queen given a black eye...

I remember that several foreign posters advocated too that lese-majesty is a thing which belongs to the past and is in fact not political correct in terms of equal treatment of persons.

Then the discussion could start: IS the Queen just a normal person? She is the only functionary in the Netherlands who gets her job because she is more or less born into it.

Recent case of lèse majesté in the Netherlands

It's the first time in years that someone in the Netherlands has to appear in court because of lèse-majesté, based on the Art. 111 of the Wetboek van Strafvordering/Penal Code:

"Opzettelijke belediging van de Koning wordt gestraft met gevangenisstraf van ten hoogste vijf jaren of geldboete van de vierde categorie."

[Translation: "Calculated insult of the King is punished with an imprisonment up to five years or a fine of the fourth category."]

5 years, in theory, but probably just a fine. (Insulting a citizen would cost you three months imprisonment maximum v. 5 years against the Queen or 4 years against the Heir/Wife.)

I read about the two incidents first on the BRMB, but also on the blog 24oranges -

Journalist fined for insulting Queen Beatrix

A 17-year-old journalist of Spunk magazine was caught together with her cameraman for - you guessed it - insulting the Queen. She was wearing a T-shirt that read “The Queen is a whore” (in Dutch of course). To make her point she also had a T-shirt that read “All moslims are goat fuckers”, which refers to a comment made by the late Theo van Gogh to prove that freedom of speech was an issue in the Netherlands, especially with Moslims.

Spunk has a video up (in Dutch). But I imagine some adult reactions seem to use it as an excuse to vilify youth.

Homeless man fined for insulting Dutch Queen

This week a homeless Surinamese man from Amsterdam was fined EUR 400 for insulting the Queen and a policeman. Experts are surprised the Queen needs to be protected from vagrants and blame the fine on the current Dutch government obsession with “norms and values”. The man yelled, “I hate your Queen. The Queen of the Netherlands is a whore.” Then, he went on to describe the sexual acts he would do to the Queen. “She’d like that.”

Focusing on the man's identity as Suriname-born, homeless and drug addict seems to have added a racist, classist twist to the story. Is he really Dutch?

Ironically, famous Dutch white folk have also insulted the Queen as of late in front of large audiences and were never fined. Comedian Hans Teeuwen pretended to have sex with Beatrix on stage [the Spunk vid features him] and writer Youp van ’t Hek wrote that, “the Dutch audience would be shocked if Willem-Alexander (regent prince) and Beatrix were caught doing it at the monument on the Dam (in Amsterdam)”.

Haven't they heard of paper shredders?

Radio Netherlands Worldwide - A number of papers report the discoveries made by a television news-programme team who removed bin bags from outside the office of Queen Beatrix' secretarial staff.

De Telegraaf sounds almost outraged in its front-page headline, saying they "searched through the Queen's rubbish". However, it quotes an insider as saying that what was found was "not too bad".

De Volkskrant tells us the journalists lifted 24 bags of rubbish over a period of seven weeks. Among the discoveries were documents showing that the sovereign has already planned state visits up to 2011. This means that she has no intention of abdicating in favour of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander in the near future.

Dutch Provincial Elections

The elections were yesterday, March 7. I like to follow news about them. I have a strange family. Two of my cousins have been involved in local and provincial politics, but on opposite sides. One has been a VVD (conservative) member of her town council. Her sister has been the PVdA (Labour) party representive for her town in the Utrecht provincial council. And a distant relative (by marriage) was mayor of the fourth largest city in The Netherlands. So, maybe it's in my genes to be active in politics, too.

Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep - The biggest winner in the vote, however, was the left-wing Socialist Party (SP) which built on its success in the general elections in November 2006, where it almost tripled its number of seats in the lower house of parliament.

Turnout was a near record low for the vote at just over 46 percent. This added to the uncertainty and tension for the government parties. The vote itself was for the provincial layer of government, which sits between the central government and the local municipalities.

Martin Wisse - Now what makes this provincial election special is that there is a real chance that, for the first time in parliamentary history, the governmental parties may lose their majority in the Eerste Kamer [Senate]. If this happens, it may indeed turn into a roadblock for the government's plans. Of course, even with a majority, the opposition first needs to be united to stop such plans and with the rightwing VVD and the leftwing SP as the largest opposition parties, that may be difficult.