Posted by Ellen | Posted in My life in the USA | Posted on 23-04-2010
Tags: Dutch Polititcal parties, elections., overview, Political parties, The Netherlands
Here is the follow-up on my previous post about the Dutch Political Parties. The next parties are not the major ones, but they get more and more influence and attention in the Dutch society. Personally, I believe some parties should have more seats because of their great ideas and ideologies, and other parties should not have any of their seats because of their poor ideas and almost inhuman ideologies. As I said, I am not an expert, just interested to read about the Dutch political situation now, because of the upcoming elections. This post is an overview, nothing more.
GroenLinks : Green Left
http://groenlinks.nl/
GroenLinks is a leftist party that was formed out of three smaller leftist parties and one leftist Christian party in 1989. Their name basically says it all: they are a leftist party with a focus on the environment and environmentally sustainable solutions to modern problems. They focus on social issues such as education, crime and unemployment and their solution through social support and social methods. They are socially tolerant, environmentally conscious, and are socially liberal on issues such as gay marriage, euthanasia and abortion. They are often criticized for solutions that are too long-term and do not produce immediate results, although they can also be praised for having a great deal of foresight in their policy decisions.
Currently the most well known face of GroenLinks is Femke Halsema. In stark contrast to the fighting spirit of Agnes Kant from SP, Halsema tends to focus on discussion and cooperative solutions. In recent years she has become a well respected member of parliament, and until the recent upheaval of PvdA, was well liked for a possible position as Prime Minister.
Christen Unie is a conservative democratic Christian party. This party was the surprise third party rounding off the last coalition government. I say surprise because they are not a large party in comparison to VVD, which was the expected third party for the coalition. Although they have technically been a party since 2000, they were formed, and reformed throughout the 20th Century from a variety of more conservative Christian parties. Although they tend to take a more conservative view on social issues such as abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage, they are economically a bit more left than CDA and focus a great deal on education, social services and health care issues. CU uses the Bible directly as a basis for it’s policies and ideology, whereas CDA uses the Bible in a more general sense for guidance on issues. The current vice Prime Minister is Andre Rouvoet from Christen Unie. After the fall of the cabinet he was appointed Minister of Education, Culture and Science.PVV, Partij voor de Vrijheid : Party for Freedom
http://www.pvv.nl/
PVV is probably the most controversial of all the current Dutch political parties. It’s founding member, Geert Wilders, was originally a member of VVD, and his economic policies generally reflect that. This party is more economically liberal and will often have the same economic stand on any given issue as VVD. Where Geert Wilders differed so dramatically from the VVD was in his radical view of Islam as a threat to modern European society. He takes a strong stand on the active prevention of a further “Islamicisation” of the Netherlands, and is outspoken against further immigration of residents from Islamic countries. He proposes sending any person of Islamic faith back to their country of origin if they commit a crime in the Netherlands, taxing any woman wearing a head scarf, and introducing a sort of militia to reduce crime. As you can see, these are pretty extreme proposals, and people get very upset about the things he says.
Due to his often argumentative style, and some of the more extreme statements he has made, he has consistently become more marginalized by other political parties. SP has taken a strong stand against PVV, stating that SP would refuse to form a coalition government with them. PvdA has made it clear that they also will not form a coalition government with PVV, though CDA has held that it is undemocratic to refuse to form a coalition with anyone if the Dutch voters have chosen via their votes to include this party. Despite the lack of support from some of the other parties, PVV did reasonably well in the recent town hall elections in the two towns they participated in. Although this offered a chance for PVV to gain more influence, it appears that no one is willing to form a coalition with them in those towns. Only time will tell if his party will diminish or gains more widespread support, although due to the recent changes in PvdA, it appears that Job Cohen might prove a worthy enemy when the elections come around on June 9th.
Despite all the negative press afforded PVV, the party has been responsible for bringing to light a lively discussion on the nature of hate speech and how that differs from the right to free speech in this country. Geert Wilders is currently on trial for inciting hatred against a particular group, that being Muslims, and has opened up a much broader discussion on what freedom of speech should and shouldn’t include.
Trots op Nederland : Proud of the Netherlands
http://www.trotsopnederland.com/
Trots op Nederland is another populist political party, not so dissimilar from PVV. They are economically conservative and very nationalistic. Unlike PVV, who has received media attention via radical statements against Islam and Muslims generally, Trots op Nederland has mostly only eluded to the statements that PVV outright declares. They are proud of their country, would like to stop what they perceive to be a flood of immigration into the country, and feel very strongly about maintaining traditional Dutch cultural values. The founder and most well known member is Rita Verdonk, who officially founded the party in 2008. The party has dwindled during recent years and might only have a short-lived career.
Partij voor de Dieren : Party for the Animals
http://www.partijvoordedieren.nl/
PvdD was founded in 2006 by Marianne Thieme as a means of bringing the issues of animal rights and animal welfare into the public sphere. The founding of the party was heralded by support from a few Dutch celebrities, and since then has maintained a small minority of votes, but always enough to remain in parliament. Mainly I mention PvdD not because they have a strong political influence, but because they are a great example of the diversity found in the Dutch multiparty system.
And that concludes the list of Dutch political parties. Now, there are a few more parties floating around out there with around one seat in parliament, but mostly the ones that are listed are the ones that gain the most attention. Some are more controversial than others, some are single issue parties, and some of them will probably be around for a very long time.
I hope this information will set you up to comment and tell what your opinion is of this multi-party system.
Source: Dutch Blog and Wikipedia.
CDA is a Christian-democratic party that generally remains centrist on many issues. In 1980 they were formed from the fusion of one Catholic political party, and two Protestant parties. Although they were founded out of three Christian political parties, they focus on religious tolerance, and being Christian is not a requirement for membership in this party. They use the Bible in a very general sense as a moral compass for their values, and because of this they do appeal to members of other religions as well. CDA has held the majority in the cabinet for many years now, and the current 
The Labor Party in the Netherlands is a fairly old and respected party. They are a social-democratic party, which means they have a focus on social services and welfare. Their talking points include improving education and access to education, social benefits, and as of late, stabilizing the economy. PvdA were responsible for the recent collapse of the cabinet, as they decided to quit due to their conflicting views on continued Dutch involvement in Afghanistan. PvdA had repeatedly promised its voters that they would pull troops out of Afghanistan, but this had not happened. CDA wanted to continue involvement. In making the tough decision to stand by their political promises, PvdA quit, which in turn meant that the coalition was defunct. It is possible that this issue was a bit of the “straw that broke the camel’s back” as PvdA has had a rocky history with CDA, and there were many other problems between the two parties at the time this issue came to a head.
The most recognizable member of this party is 
The VVD is the largest economically conservative party in the country, and like the PvdA, are a long-standing and respected party. They are what I would call in American terms more libertarian, but let me be clear about some terminology. In Europe the term “economically liberal” means that there is less government involvement, hence you will also hear this party called “economically liberal” in European terms. This means that they focus on less government regulation for businesses, a free-market economy, individual responsibility and freedom and less government rules and regulations overall. This party did not make up the most recent coalition government with CDA and PvdA, though they have been a member of many coalition governments in the past. Interestingly enough, some of the more populist political party leaders were originally members of the VVD and then moved on to form their own parties. They are currently led by Mark Rutte, who, in a poll of the opinions of parliament members last year, was considered the best politician by his peers.
D66 was formed, if you hadn’t already guessed, in 1966, by journalist Hans van Mierlo. Sadly, the founder of D66 recently passed away at the age of 78 after a very long and successful political career. The main goals of D66 have been further democratization of the Dutch political system, and more political involvement from citizens. They are therefore progressive, because they want to change the political system itself, socially liberal because they believe that the backbone of the society is it’s ability to help it’s citizens, and radically democratic because they believe that citizens should be able to have a physical vote on issues and political positions. They would like citizens to be able to vote for the mayor of their city, the prime minister, and on specific issues, just to name a few things. They focus on citizen outreach through “livingroom chats” with citizens in their own homes, where they figure out what the constituency wants through one-on-one interaction. They like to consider themselves politically flexible on the issues, therefore they do not take a strong philosophical stand and prefer to deal with issues on an “as they come” basis. Historically they have remained a bit more economically conservative and have a focus on supporting smaller business, while being socially liberal and fairly outspoken champions of gay rights. The leader of the D66 party is Alexander Pechtold.
SP is another Dutch political party with a long and rich history. They were originally founded as a combination of Maoist and Marxist/Leninist groups in the 1970s, and subsequently went through a few incarnations, until they finally settled on leaving behind Marxist/Leninist philosophy in the early 1990s. Since 1994 they have been officially called SP, though they are by no means a new party. SP is a democratic-socialist party with very clear philosophical positions on the issues, in stark contrast to D66. They focus on many social issues, including welfare, education, employment, and worker’s rights, with the guiding principle being socialist philosophy. The political representatives often stand in stark contrast to other politicians if you go see a local debate, where the SP member will most likely be wearing red, and most likely won’t look like a politician at all, but rather a regular working-class citizen who got concerned and decided to get involved.
The most recognizable face of SP for the last two years has been their party leader, 
Patriot’s Day is celebrated on the third Monday in April. It commemorates the Battle of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. The Revolutionary War began there on April 19, 1775 and ended in Yorktown on October 19, 1781 when Cornwall is surrendered to George Washington. A formal treaty ending the war was not signed until 1783.
When I came home Dan showed me a picture and a video he took of an opossum. This critter was walking on our fence! I have never seen one before and to be honest, I am not sure I would like to see it in our backyard when I am there, brrrrrrrr…They have a big snout and when they are scared, they can be nasty.
In the afternoon I was pretty upset with our neighbors. They just moved in and now they were taking care of some trees in their backyard. They chopped them all down. In one of the trees was a nest of mockingbirds. These birds come there every year to build their nest. The mom and dad defend the nest with their lives. Lots of bigger birds, like ravens and crows, try to steal their eggs. The mockingbirds literally attack the bigger birds. Sometimes it looked as if the ravens were calling each other and then, at least 10 of these big mean birds attack the tree where the nest is in.
That was a cacophony of screaming birds. The mocking birds succeeded so far to defend their “babies”. And now, this afternoon, the tree is down and the eggs are probably broken. It was to me so sad that this happened. I am pretty sure our neighbors did not even know the mockingbirds were having a nest there. So, the mom and dad mockingbirds are now homeless and mourning over their lost “children”.
The current monarch in the Netherlands is Queen Beatrix. The royal family are the descendants of William of Orange. The queen serves a few primary functions in government. She serves as an adviser to the cabinet and prime minister in the role of expert on how the government works. She provides continuity in government between elections and the time when a new coalition is formed. The Queen’s role is to appoint the person in charge of coordinating the process of forming a coalition government.
The parliament in the Netherlands consists of the First Chamber (Eerste Kamer) and the Second Chamber (Tweede Kamer). The Tweede Kamer is where all the action happens, and some people feel that perhaps the Eerste Kamer no longer fills much of a role in the government here. To be quite honest, I don’t really have a position on that issue, but perhaps some of you might.
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