The War of the Roses
Prominent members of the political party the PvdA say that the party’s leader Wouter Bos is making a terrible mistake by focusing too much on the CDA. Margreeth de Boer and Joop van den Berg say that Wouter Bos assumed early on already that the elections will result in a PvdA – CDA coalition and that as such, the CDA being led by Prime-Ministed Jan Peter Balkenende, would adopt a ‘compromizing’ attitude, or at least a non-aggressive one.
However, the CDA and the VVD are campaigning in a for the Dutch at least, highly aggressive manner. The PvdA, especially Bos himself, complains that the CDA and VVD are not debating the issues, but instead limiting themselves to attacking Bos (Bos said that they “are trying to destroy [him]“).
Which is true.
All I have to say is: welcome to the big leagues Wouter. During the ‘gemeenteraadsverkiezingen’ (something like counties I believe), also organized this year, he had just about no opposition. This time; it is different. The CDA and VVD are not letting Wouter Bos dominate the political landscape / the campaign as he did in February and March of this year.
High ranking members of the VVD said – in essence – the same: stop complaining, this is politics.
P.S.
For those who are wondering about the title (and image) of this post: the sign of the PvdA is a red rose.
P.P.S.
Seemingly there is some confusion about the parties mentioned in this post, although I explained it several times already, I will explain it again:
Our three largest parties are the VVD, PvdA and CDA. The VVD and CDA currently form our government coalition. The VVD is our ‘liberal’ party. Note: not American liberal, but ‘European liberal’. There are differences. What you all call ‘liberals’ share more similarities with our labor party (that is the PvdA) than with our ‘liberal conservative party’, the VVD.
From left to right:
SP Groenlinks PvdA D66 [center] CDA VVD LPF Wilders Lijst1
I am VVD. The CDA currently has 44 of the 150 seats in Parliament. The PvdA has 42. This year’s race is – again – between the CDA and PvdA. If the CDA wins it will most likely try to form a coalition – again – with the VVD -> if that makes up for a total of 76 seats at least. The PvdA wants to form a coalition with the CDA.
A CDA – VVD coalition is a center right one.
A PvdA – CDA coalition is left of center.
The last option, obviously, worries me.
P.P.S.
Indeed, I am not objective about this.
7 Responses to “The War of the Roses”
Interesting to see how political news of a country you don’t know is absolutly meaningless to you. I have no idea what you are talking about. I don’t know if the CDA and VVD are opposing parties, but if PvDA has a red rose for a symbol, they might be associated with the larger “socialist” (in name only) party of Europe. In Spain we have the PSOE, their symbol is a fist clutching a red rose.
but i explained that on numerous occasions by now! the CDA is Christian Democrats slightly right of center. VVD is center right (my party: liberal conservatives mostly). PvdA is labor.
Interesting,
Michael, I confess I was a little fuzzy on which initials were for who – but I did recall the VVD was your party.
Sort of reminds me of Schumer’s “debates” with other Democrat candidates in 2004. He refused to debate anything about his record. Instead just said he wouldn’t answer them (wouldn’t even look at them) and that they were just trying to discredit him. The only actual questions he answered were the ones from the moderator – not having to do with his previous record.
Which I quibble on – on one hand the other candidates did not have much of a chance so why give the opposition any ammo. On the other hand – why go to a debate if you refuse to debate.
You say it’s true they’re trying to destroy Bos – do you think they’re not touching the issues or is it Bos not wanting to discuss his own record?
good question interested. My view: both.
I edited my post btw.
Here’s a couple of short links from the English language webpage of Radio Netherlands:
Brief introduction to Election 2006 HERE.
Dutch political parties HERE.
thanks for the links byg!
Generally speaking, during times of election in the Netherlands the country gets divided into two parts: leftists &rightists. There is no real centrist party other than maybe the now insignificant Democraten ’66 (D66).
It is mentioned often that our PM Balkenende is of the ideology that only hard work should be rewarded and this is used by leftist parties to criticise him of ‘punishing the poor’.
Obviously, with the immigrant share of the population growing each year, the leftist parties gain many votes by portaying themselves as the immigrant-friendly party, the worker-class party as well as the party that supports people who rent houses rather than those that buy houses.
The Netherlands is internationally considered a feminin society (though not as feminin as for instance Sweden), meaning that we are a caring society that stands up for the poor (whilst punishing the rich for being rich bastards regardless of how hard they worked for their money).
Opposing this view, I am definitely a right-winger, like Michael. I am of the opinion that in most cases one cannot depend solely on the Government for an income. I despise the leftist ideas of proposing higher taxes for the five percent richest people to help the poor. I also am of the opinion that Governments should not discriminate on income, i.e. higher speeding penalties for rich people, more expensive health care for rich people etcetera.
PS: I’d like to remind people that mostly poverty in the Netherlands still comes with a widescreen tv, a DVD player and a car.
PPS: half of my family comes from Indonesia, so I know the other side of the coin.