Rossy Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/15/pm-mark-rutte-set-to-beat-geert-wilders-in-dutch-election Surprised there hasn't been a thread on this already, given that the far right newspapers in the UK have been screaming for months in delight about how succesful Wilders and his band of anti-Moslem rascists would be. I'm not sure if this a turning point for far right populism in Europe, but it's certainly a setback. I suspect that it's the high water mark for Wilders. Good news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weekevie04 Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 Watched a bit of it on Wed and was fairly interesting. Also, the language! Lots of English buzz words and could pick up bits e.g Dieren/Dyr/Anmial. Hugely off-topic but I take it you can understand Afrikaans quite well? The Labour party took a pounding, noticed they were coalition partners - did they go back on a pre-election promise and just get blamed by Rutte's party for the ill's of the coalition government much like happens elsewhere? Do you have to be a Dutch citizen to vote? Who are Dent? (I think) a new party lead by two Turkish-Dutch people. And the Green-Left seemed to have done very well too in picking up 10 seats. Some amazing parties - Party voor Dieren - I'm guessing is the Animal Party and the 50 Plus - I thought that was a NSFW website. Quite remarkable though the British media don't have a scoob though, constantly referring to the Dutch system as 'complex' or 'difficult' in the reports I seen. Coalitions are the norm around Europe especially in Scandinavia and BenNeLux. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rossy Posted March 17, 2017 Author Share Posted March 17, 2017 33 minutes ago, weekevie04 said: Watched a bit of it on Wed and was fairly interesting. Also, the language! Lots of English buzz words and could pick up bits e.g Dieren/Dyr/Anmial. Hugely off-topic but I take it you can understand Afrikaans quite well? The Labour party took a pounding, noticed they were coalition partners - did they go back on a pre-election promise and just get blamed by Rutte's party for the ill's of the coalition government much like happens elsewhere? Do you have to be a Dutch citizen to vote? Who are Dent? (I think) a new party lead by two Turkish-Dutch people. And the Green-Left seemed to have done very well too in picking up 10 seats. Some amazing parties - Party voor Dieren - I'm guessing is the Animal Party and the 50 Plus - I thought that was a NSFW website. Quite remarkable though the British media don't have a scoob though, constantly referring to the Dutch system as 'complex' or 'difficult' in the reports I seen. Coalitions are the norm around Europe especially in Scandinavia and BenNeLux. Even after 20+ years in the country I don't understand the Dutch electoral system, and Ive never met a foreigner who does. Non- Dutch citizens are not allowed to vote in their national elections. We can vote in local and European elections, but not the national one. As you said, some interesting parties out there. The Party voor Dieren (the Party for Animals) won 5 seats. Denk (which means 'Think') are a Turkish/Moroccan party and they picked up 3 seats due to the ......as you mention....interesting coalition system in The Netherlands. The PvdA (the Labour party) did indeed take a hammering, with many of their votes going to the Green/Left and to D66 (a kind of LIberal party). The pleasing thing is that despite the predictions of a populist far right wing surge, Wilder's party have fewer seats that they did in 2010 and as I said, it seems unlikely that they will ever hold any kind of real power despite every conceivable circumstance being in their favour at this time. Interestingly, the Dutch voted overwhelmingly for pro-EU parties. Despite the best efforts of the UK media to suggest otherwise, there is no serious movement in The Netherlands to reject the EU. With the Le Pen unlikely to win power in France, it looks like the only country where the far right fanatics hold any real sway is the UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaid Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 39 minutes ago, Rossy said: The PvdA (the Labour party) did indeed take a hammering, with many of their votes going to the Green/Left and to D66 (a kind of LIberal party). Is Johan von Ternan their chief election strategist? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheres the pies Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 4 hours ago, Rossy said: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/15/pm-mark-rutte-set-to-beat-geert-wilders-in-dutch-election Surprised there hasn't been a thread on this already, given that the far right newspapers in the UK have been screaming for months in delight about how succesful Wilders and his band of anti-Moslem rascists would be. I'm not sure if this a turning point for far right populism in Europe, but it's certainly a setback. I suspect that it's the high water mark for Wilders. Good news. bet your glad you canny vote in there general election seen the size of that ballet paper that has to be the biggest one I have seen was there no like 28 different political party's on it ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thplinth Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 (edited) The guy looked like an 'alien wearing a donald trump wig, with dead eyes'. I dont think anyone here would dispute that as true. The fact this utter freak show did as well as he did is actually not good for those thinking populism has peaked. Peachwhateverhisname(?)* was thought the sun shone out his arsehole. Another bad sign. * may have got that wrong, the guy who had his own website with the David Brent picture of himself 'manspreading' as it is called today. Edited March 17, 2017 by thplinth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toepoke Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 (edited) 4 hours ago, Rossy said: With the Le Pen unlikely to win power in France, it looks like the only country where the far right fanatics hold any real sway is the UK. Let's not rush to judgement til we're in the clear there. Fingers xd we get to witness the seethe of the English press if she loses then Merkel wins... Edited March 17, 2017 by Toepoke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rossy Posted March 17, 2017 Author Share Posted March 17, 2017 2 hours ago, wheres the pies said: bet your glad you canny vote in there general election seen the size of that ballet paper that has to be the biggest one I have seen was there no like 28 different political party's on it ? Even though we can't vote we got a candidate list through the door. It was a 5 page booklet and the missus initially thought it was a new take-away menu. The list of parties were pretty astounding. Mr personal favourites being the Pirate Party, and the 'Partý for non voters', which was a party for people who prefer to abstain and who promised not to vote on anything in parliament if they won any seats. 52 minutes ago, thplinth said: The guy looked like an 'alien wearing a donald trump wig, with dead eyes'. I dont think anyone here would dispute that as true. The fact this utter freak show did as well as he did is actually not good for those thinking populism has peaked. Peachwhateverhisname(?)* was thought the sun shone out his arsehole. Another bad sign. * may have got that wrong, the guy who had his own website with the David Brent picture of himself 'manspreading' as it is called today. I prefer to look at it the other way. His party won fewer seats than 7 years ago and given that pretty much every set of political circumstances was in his favour, the Dutch electorate deserve a huge pat on the back for not succumbing to his populist message. The only thing that didn't work in his favour is the fact that......unlike the UK....The Netherlands doesn't have a virulent, rabid right-wing media dictating the political direction that the country should be heading in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thplinth Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 (edited) 11 minutes ago, Rossy said: His party won fewer seats than 7 years ago and given that pretty much every set of political circumstances was in his favour, the Dutch electorate deserve a huge pat on the back for not succumbing to his populist message. The only thing that didn't work in his favour is the fact that......unlike the UK....The Netherlands doesn't have a virulent, rabid right-wing media dictating the political direction that the country should be heading in. He was a horrendous candidate. I doubt they could have fielded a worse one personally. And despite that his party did pretty well. Respectfully i'd be taking this result as a bad sign and not a good one if i was on your political side in Holland. If they find someone with a gram of charisma... Edited March 17, 2017 by thplinth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibelieve!!! Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 I work with a lot of Dutch, it's amazing the amount of them that are openly racist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stocky Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 21 hours ago, Toepoke said: Let's not rush to judgement til we're in the clear there. Fingers xd we get to witness the seethe of the English press if she loses then Merkel wins... I saw an interview during the week with the Dutch PM ( I think) and he said the Dutch Elections were the quarter finals, the French the Semi Finals and the German the Final... Meaning Liberalism v populism.... So liberalism is now in the Semi Finals..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thplinth Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 2 hours ago, stocky said: I saw an interview during the week with the Dutch PM ( I think) and he said the Dutch Elections were the quarter finals, the French the Semi Finals and the German the Final... Meaning Liberalism v populism.... So liberalism is now in the Semi Finals..... Sounds about right. No way that freak show was winning in Holland but the French one should be closer and if Merkel wins in Germany then you can count me and many other YES voters out of the EU supporting YES strategy. In fact if Merkel wins you can forget winning the next indyref. She has tuned the EU into such an unattractive prospect that I doubt you'd ever get enough votes. She fukd europe enough to provoke brexit but now if she is defeated it might actually give us (Scotland) a chance to re-appeal back to the original idea of the EU (after England has burnt its bridges). There was a good reason for brexit and maybe england chucking it will mean the end of Merkel and a chance for us! If she wins kiss independence goodbye for a good long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orraloon Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 18 hours ago, thplinth said: Sounds about right. No way that freak show was winning in Holland but the French one should be closer and if Merkel wins in Germany then you can count me and many other YES voters out of the EU supporting YES strategy. In fact if Merkel wins you can forget winning the next indyref. She has tuned the EU into such an unattractive prospect that I doubt you'd ever get enough votes. She fukd europe enough to provoke brexit but now if she is defeated it might actually give us (Scotland) a chance to re-appeal back to the original idea of the EU (after England has burnt its bridges). There was a good reason for brexit and maybe england chucking it will mean the end of Merkel and a chance for us! If she wins kiss independence goodbye for a good long time. Do you think that a significant number of the Scottish electorate will link their YES/NO vote to who wins the German election? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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