A week ago I wrote that Amsterdam Aelderman Achmed Aboutaleb accused Minister of Immigration and Intergration Rita Verdonk of "capitalizing on the murder of Theo van Gogh". The filmmaker was assassinated by a Jihadist in November 2004.
"Iron" Liberal-Conservative (VVD) Rita Verdonk, demanded an apology. She would not meet him until he would "go through dust". Mayor Job Cohen (Labour) tried to save the face of the big Muslim hope of the Labour Party, by insisting that Aboutaleb had apologized.
Monday, after heavy critizism from all sides the Muslim Aelderman (Dutch) apologized fully to Verdonk.
The episode is important. Aboutaleb is supposed to draw the votes for Labour from the moderate Muslims in Amsterdam, especially the Moroccans. For a Muslim man to apologize to a woman is a big thing and it will have damaged Aboutaleb's voter appeal considerably.
The votes will go to other leftist parties or more Muslim voters, who have a below 50 percent voting participation rate will stay home when the elections are held.
Showing posts with label Verdonk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Verdonk. Show all posts
Monday, October 23, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Verdonk versus the rest of the world
Amsterdam (Dutch) City Executive and Labour Party politician Achmed Aboutaleb accused Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk of using the murder of Theo van Gogh for political capital.
Minister Verdonk reacted by:
Aboutaleb refused to apologize to Verdonk but said he was sorry. He refused to go further. The meeting was ajourned and afterwards Major Job Cohen issued a statement that the words of Aelderman Aboutaleb should be understood as a apology.
We will see how Mrs. Verdonk reacts.
Minister Verdonk reacted by:
demanding an apology from Amsterdam city executive Ahmed Aboutaleb, following his accusation that Verdonk made political capital from the murder of film-maker Theo van Gogh. Verdonk called his accusation a ‘scandalous twisting of the facts’. Verdonk has also pulled out of a debate with Aboutaleb scheduled for Sunday.This afternoon the issue came up in the Amsterdam city council in a motion supported by the Christian Democrats (CDA) and the Liberal-Conservatives (VVD).
Aboutaleb refused to apologize to Verdonk but said he was sorry. He refused to go further. The meeting was ajourned and afterwards Major Job Cohen issued a statement that the words of Aelderman Aboutaleb should be understood as a apology.
We will see how Mrs. Verdonk reacts.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Rudderless Right
The Dutch "Right" seems to be in serious disarry.
After the 2002 "Fortuyn" elections it was the Left who was in disarray. It saw its ideology questioned for the first time, many of its leaders de-robed and discredited and its party structures badly shot up. The Left was rudderless and mastless like French Men o' War at Trafalgar. Bliss it was to be alive and right-winged in that false dawn.
The Left reformed its formations
After some time the Dutch Left restructured itself, adapted to some of Fortuyn's truths and gave the rest of Fortuyn's philosophy a wide berth. These days most of the press is blatantly multi-culturalist and statist again in its reporting and commentary.
The Dutch Right was in charge and reformed the economy
Back in 2002, the days of chaos and turmoil, after the assasination of Fortuyn a shortlived government was formed consisting of the Christian Democrats, the Liberal Conservatives, and the populist Fortuyn List. Due to the ineptitude of the latter party the Balkenende I coalition broke up after a few months. The Balkenende coalition was named after its Christian Democrat leader.
The Right was still strong in the minds of the people. The Christian Democrats and Liberal Conservatives were able to form a new government with the centrist Democrats 66. The new government is called Balkenende II.
This government used its time well, embarking on a program of further economic reform and liberalisation, emphasising responsibility of citizens and their self-organisation. This vision is true to the old time Christian Democracy.
The government slaughtered some of the holy cows of Dutch PC on law and order and immigration. Notably with the harsh and legalistic Rita Verdonk on Immigration and Integration. The message abroad was clear. Immigration fell sharply. The Netherlands lost its image of hospitality in the minds of Thirdwolders looking for a nice warm national body to leech and live off.
Then a few months ago the government fell as a result of an inept action by Minister Verdonk and her political "sister" Lousewies van der Laan of coalition partner D66. This was over the Dutch citizensship of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali Religion Basher. There will be elections in autumn.
The coalition timed their fall poorly. There had been a downturn in the business cycle and unemployment was rising in the beginning of the government. The Balkenende coalition implemented unpopular measures, cutting welfare and government subsidies and attempting to decrease bureaucrat meddling. The Christian Democrats were low in the polls, because people liked neither the "responsibility" message, nor the leadership of Balkenende, who is as inspiring, alive and sexy as a Swiss Cuckoo clock with a common cold.
As a result of the economic upturn since 2005 unemployment has fallen sharply. Due to the constant policies of deregulation and lower taxes since 1992 business is ruining unemployment and welfarism. Unemployment has fallen below 3.8 percent of the working population! Wages are rising.
Naturally the Balkenende coalition wants to take credit for the upswing and tell the voters that all their economic winnings will be squandered if they cash their conservative political chips and start playing Socialist roulette again.
Voters do credit Balkenende with their prosperity and the Christian Democrats are gaining in the polls. But will the Right be strong enough to form a stable coalition after the elections? And will it be a right-winged government or just a leftwing government in travesty?
It is unclear how the Liberal Conservatives (VVD) will fare in the autumn elections. In the confrontation between the popular Rita Verdonk and Mark Rutte the party membership elected boyish Rutte as its leader. Verdonk has the second position on the list. Both are lacking in political and intellectual gravitas. Verdonk is a voter magnet, but due to her defeat the Liberal Conservatives have lost much of their appeal. The Liberal Conservatives are in turmoil, there is a new party list with lots of new candidates. Some of them are antagonistic to each other and have publicly left the party list. One of them, mr. Doctors van Leeuwen, is a very notable former head of Dutch internal security. Another, van Schijndel, has been purged from the part. Van Schijndel is unhappy with the way the Liberal Conservatives are avoiding the mentioning of immigration and multiculturalism issues. Like 2002 the VVD is pretending there is nothing going on although public opinion is getting even more concerned with Islamisation. Support for article 1 of the Dutch constitution, against discrimination is one of the most important point of the 2006 party platform. In the municipal elections in March the VVD even proposed to close down bars and nightclubs that do not allow non-whites on their premises. The whole program of the VVD sees humans as homo economicus, without any other affiliation than his economic well-being.
Despite her disastrous showing in the March municipal elections, the black figurehead of the Amsterdam VVD, Laetitia Griffith has been promoted to a high position on the VVD-list. So VVD is still committed to a pro-multiculturalist platform that bears zero relation to reality.
Democrats66 (D66) can be ruled out as a junior coalition partner after their idiotic behaviour in the Hirsi Ali fracas. Perhaps the party will even disappear altogether.
The Christian Right
Further on the Right is a whole range of old and new Rightwing parties. There are the orthodox-protestant Christian Union and Calvinist State Party (SGP). These parties actually take Christianity seriously and can therefore be discounted as possible members of a “Right-wing” coalition, under current PC conditions.
Then there are a bunch of individuals with party lists that have sprung up in Fortuyn’s wake.
The New Right
The most serious of them are EénNL of Marco Pastors and Eerdmans, old friends of Pim Fortuyn and Wilders' Freedom Party, the party of the Liberal Conservative breakaway.
These parties want to limit immigration, lower taxes and slash regulation. They are critical of Islam and favor strong integrationist policies. They are against discrimination, although Wilders has recognized that the rising tide of non-whites in the major cities is an impossible situation for Dutch society.
Problematic with these parties is that they come in penny packets, have very little history, the leadership and cadre are all new, so there is no “esprit the corps”, so these parties may easily fall apart a few months after the elections. This makes scatters the rightwing vote and makes it less reliable in the long term.
A more reliable partner
Perhaps the most reliable rightwing ally is to be found in the leader of the Labour Party, Wouter Bos. Bos has recognised that the limit to what the white middle class is willing to endure as far as immigration and taxation is concerned has been reached. Consequently he quietly supports limit on immigration. Labour has been thoroughly cowed by their thrashing in the 2002 election. In the Labour cadre committed careerists outnumber committed ideologues. They are desperate that they may spend another 4 years in the opposition and are quiet happy to sell their soul to Satan in order to get back in business. As their party officially views the anti-immigrant Right as demonic they know who they are going to call to get a quote. Wouter Bos is hardly willing to participate in a Leftwing coalition if it would get a majority.
Concluding: the right-wingers who want to make a statement Wilders’ party is the one to support. Those who want to make a practical impact might do best to vote for the Christian Democrats. Whichever coalition is formed will likely carry on the Christian Democratic policy of slowed immigration and deregulation.
After the 2002 "Fortuyn" elections it was the Left who was in disarray. It saw its ideology questioned for the first time, many of its leaders de-robed and discredited and its party structures badly shot up. The Left was rudderless and mastless like French Men o' War at Trafalgar. Bliss it was to be alive and right-winged in that false dawn.
The Left reformed its formations
After some time the Dutch Left restructured itself, adapted to some of Fortuyn's truths and gave the rest of Fortuyn's philosophy a wide berth. These days most of the press is blatantly multi-culturalist and statist again in its reporting and commentary.
The Dutch Right was in charge and reformed the economy
Back in 2002, the days of chaos and turmoil, after the assasination of Fortuyn a shortlived government was formed consisting of the Christian Democrats, the Liberal Conservatives, and the populist Fortuyn List. Due to the ineptitude of the latter party the Balkenende I coalition broke up after a few months. The Balkenende coalition was named after its Christian Democrat leader.
The Right was still strong in the minds of the people. The Christian Democrats and Liberal Conservatives were able to form a new government with the centrist Democrats 66. The new government is called Balkenende II.
This government used its time well, embarking on a program of further economic reform and liberalisation, emphasising responsibility of citizens and their self-organisation. This vision is true to the old time Christian Democracy.
The government slaughtered some of the holy cows of Dutch PC on law and order and immigration. Notably with the harsh and legalistic Rita Verdonk on Immigration and Integration. The message abroad was clear. Immigration fell sharply. The Netherlands lost its image of hospitality in the minds of Thirdwolders looking for a nice warm national body to leech and live off.
Then a few months ago the government fell as a result of an inept action by Minister Verdonk and her political "sister" Lousewies van der Laan of coalition partner D66. This was over the Dutch citizensship of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali Religion Basher. There will be elections in autumn.
The coalition timed their fall poorly. There had been a downturn in the business cycle and unemployment was rising in the beginning of the government. The Balkenende coalition implemented unpopular measures, cutting welfare and government subsidies and attempting to decrease bureaucrat meddling. The Christian Democrats were low in the polls, because people liked neither the "responsibility" message, nor the leadership of Balkenende, who is as inspiring, alive and sexy as a Swiss Cuckoo clock with a common cold.
As a result of the economic upturn since 2005 unemployment has fallen sharply. Due to the constant policies of deregulation and lower taxes since 1992 business is ruining unemployment and welfarism. Unemployment has fallen below 3.8 percent of the working population! Wages are rising.
Naturally the Balkenende coalition wants to take credit for the upswing and tell the voters that all their economic winnings will be squandered if they cash their conservative political chips and start playing Socialist roulette again.
Voters do credit Balkenende with their prosperity and the Christian Democrats are gaining in the polls. But will the Right be strong enough to form a stable coalition after the elections? And will it be a right-winged government or just a leftwing government in travesty?
It is unclear how the Liberal Conservatives (VVD) will fare in the autumn elections. In the confrontation between the popular Rita Verdonk and Mark Rutte the party membership elected boyish Rutte as its leader. Verdonk has the second position on the list. Both are lacking in political and intellectual gravitas. Verdonk is a voter magnet, but due to her defeat the Liberal Conservatives have lost much of their appeal. The Liberal Conservatives are in turmoil, there is a new party list with lots of new candidates. Some of them are antagonistic to each other and have publicly left the party list. One of them, mr. Doctors van Leeuwen, is a very notable former head of Dutch internal security. Another, van Schijndel, has been purged from the part. Van Schijndel is unhappy with the way the Liberal Conservatives are avoiding the mentioning of immigration and multiculturalism issues. Like 2002 the VVD is pretending there is nothing going on although public opinion is getting even more concerned with Islamisation. Support for article 1 of the Dutch constitution, against discrimination is one of the most important point of the 2006 party platform. In the municipal elections in March the VVD even proposed to close down bars and nightclubs that do not allow non-whites on their premises. The whole program of the VVD sees humans as homo economicus, without any other affiliation than his economic well-being.
Despite her disastrous showing in the March municipal elections, the black figurehead of the Amsterdam VVD, Laetitia Griffith has been promoted to a high position on the VVD-list. So VVD is still committed to a pro-multiculturalist platform that bears zero relation to reality.
Democrats66 (D66) can be ruled out as a junior coalition partner after their idiotic behaviour in the Hirsi Ali fracas. Perhaps the party will even disappear altogether.
The Christian Right
Further on the Right is a whole range of old and new Rightwing parties. There are the orthodox-protestant Christian Union and Calvinist State Party (SGP). These parties actually take Christianity seriously and can therefore be discounted as possible members of a “Right-wing” coalition, under current PC conditions.
Then there are a bunch of individuals with party lists that have sprung up in Fortuyn’s wake.
The New Right
The most serious of them are EénNL of Marco Pastors and Eerdmans, old friends of Pim Fortuyn and Wilders' Freedom Party, the party of the Liberal Conservative breakaway.
These parties want to limit immigration, lower taxes and slash regulation. They are critical of Islam and favor strong integrationist policies. They are against discrimination, although Wilders has recognized that the rising tide of non-whites in the major cities is an impossible situation for Dutch society.
Problematic with these parties is that they come in penny packets, have very little history, the leadership and cadre are all new, so there is no “esprit the corps”, so these parties may easily fall apart a few months after the elections. This makes scatters the rightwing vote and makes it less reliable in the long term.
A more reliable partner
Perhaps the most reliable rightwing ally is to be found in the leader of the Labour Party, Wouter Bos. Bos has recognised that the limit to what the white middle class is willing to endure as far as immigration and taxation is concerned has been reached. Consequently he quietly supports limit on immigration. Labour has been thoroughly cowed by their thrashing in the 2002 election. In the Labour cadre committed careerists outnumber committed ideologues. They are desperate that they may spend another 4 years in the opposition and are quiet happy to sell their soul to Satan in order to get back in business. As their party officially views the anti-immigrant Right as demonic they know who they are going to call to get a quote. Wouter Bos is hardly willing to participate in a Leftwing coalition if it would get a majority.
Concluding: the right-wingers who want to make a statement Wilders’ party is the one to support. Those who want to make a practical impact might do best to vote for the Christian Democrats. Whichever coalition is formed will likely carry on the Christian Democratic policy of slowed immigration and deregulation.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Verdonk not elected as VVD party leader
This news is just out.
Mrs. "hardline" Verdonk (Dutch) was not elected to party leader of the Liberal Conservative VVD. Instead Marc Rutte, the candidate put forward by the VVD hierarchy has been elected by the VVD membership.
This is in my opinion a positive development. Mrs. Verdonk does not have the necessary quality to operate on party leadership level.
Mrs. "hardline" Verdonk (Dutch) was not elected to party leader of the Liberal Conservative VVD. Instead Marc Rutte, the candidate put forward by the VVD hierarchy has been elected by the VVD membership.
This is in my opinion a positive development. Mrs. Verdonk does not have the necessary quality to operate on party leadership level.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Hirsi has to go, Verdonk nose dives
Dutch Minister Verdonk of Immigration Monday sent Hirsi Ali a letter declaring her Dutch citizenship null and void. This was within 24 hours of questions being raised in Parliament about the lies Hirsi Ali told to the Immigration and Naturalisation Service concerning her supposed life in Somalia before 1992. Television program "Zembla" raised the issue about her story she told about being a refugee from Somalia, which was a war thorn country at the time while she had grown up in peaceful Kenya. She also gave a false name.
Hirsi Ali has an offer from the American Enterprise Institute to join their Washington thinktank. Without Dutch citizenship she will have to travel to the US as a refugee, with a refugee pass.
The letter of Verdonk had a crushing effect on Hirsi Ali:
The letter was the last straw that led Hirsi Ali to resign with immediate effect from parliament on Tuesday and formally announce she is moving to the Washington to work for a neo-conservative think tank.
Initially Hirsi was working for the Wiarda Beckman Foundation, the research institute of the Labour Party. When the Labour Party did not allow her to critizise Islam she moved to the Liberal - Conservative VVD. The VVD gave her a freer hand to critizise Islam's patriarchal and aggressive nature. Ayaan Hirsi Ali attacked the constitutional Freedom of Education (article 23) because it gave Dutch Muslims the right to create Islamic schools and shielding young Muslims from Western ideas. However the members of the old guard of the VVD tried to dissuade Hirsi of attacking Dutch Freedom of Education. When Hirsi carried on her attack she lost support of the party as both the old guard and the rank and file supporters of the VVD regard Freedom of Education sacrosanct.
Foreign media generally overlook the attachment of the Dutch Right wing to Freedom of Education. One often sees Dutchmen writing on forums like elsevier.nl and telegraaf.nl that multiculturalism is a failure and that they do not want to sacrifice their children to state education and intergrated Multiracial schools.
Hardline Minister Verdonk lost a lot of support due to her weak defense of the attack on the legal status of Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
But it has done her more harm than good. Opinion polls conducted among VVD members shows support for former front-runner Verdonk has nosedived. And VVD MPs have made it clear they no longer see Verdonk as their future leader.
Yesterday night the Amsterdam stand-up comedians were ridiculing Verdonk and Hirsi Ali. Dutch politics is still unstable and volatile as a result of mass immigration in the 90ies and the attempt to force Multiculturalism on the population.
The Dutch love their freedom. They resisted the attempt by the Multiculturalists to take away their freedom in the Fortuyn revolt of 2002 and they resist the efforts of foreigners who try to make a Multiracial society work by enforced ethnic and ideological intergration ("Gleichschaltung") of the school system. However the problems remain unfixed.
A new development is that now the whole legitimacy of asylum is being eroded in the eyes of the population. Pundits are pointing out that a large percentage of asylum seekers lied to get entry to the Netherlands just as Ayaan Hirsi Ali and are really just economic migrants.
The saga continues.
Hirsi Ali has an offer from the American Enterprise Institute to join their Washington thinktank. Without Dutch citizenship she will have to travel to the US as a refugee, with a refugee pass.
The letter of Verdonk had a crushing effect on Hirsi Ali:
The letter was the last straw that led Hirsi Ali to resign with immediate effect from parliament on Tuesday and formally announce she is moving to the Washington to work for a neo-conservative think tank.
Initially Hirsi was working for the Wiarda Beckman Foundation, the research institute of the Labour Party. When the Labour Party did not allow her to critizise Islam she moved to the Liberal - Conservative VVD. The VVD gave her a freer hand to critizise Islam's patriarchal and aggressive nature. Ayaan Hirsi Ali attacked the constitutional Freedom of Education (article 23) because it gave Dutch Muslims the right to create Islamic schools and shielding young Muslims from Western ideas. However the members of the old guard of the VVD tried to dissuade Hirsi of attacking Dutch Freedom of Education. When Hirsi carried on her attack she lost support of the party as both the old guard and the rank and file supporters of the VVD regard Freedom of Education sacrosanct.
Foreign media generally overlook the attachment of the Dutch Right wing to Freedom of Education. One often sees Dutchmen writing on forums like elsevier.nl and telegraaf.nl that multiculturalism is a failure and that they do not want to sacrifice their children to state education and intergrated Multiracial schools.
Hardline Minister Verdonk lost a lot of support due to her weak defense of the attack on the legal status of Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
But it has done her more harm than good. Opinion polls conducted among VVD members shows support for former front-runner Verdonk has nosedived. And VVD MPs have made it clear they no longer see Verdonk as their future leader.
Yesterday night the Amsterdam stand-up comedians were ridiculing Verdonk and Hirsi Ali. Dutch politics is still unstable and volatile as a result of mass immigration in the 90ies and the attempt to force Multiculturalism on the population.
The Dutch love their freedom. They resisted the attempt by the Multiculturalists to take away their freedom in the Fortuyn revolt of 2002 and they resist the efforts of foreigners who try to make a Multiracial society work by enforced ethnic and ideological intergration ("Gleichschaltung") of the school system. However the problems remain unfixed.
A new development is that now the whole legitimacy of asylum is being eroded in the eyes of the population. Pundits are pointing out that a large percentage of asylum seekers lied to get entry to the Netherlands just as Ayaan Hirsi Ali and are really just economic migrants.
The saga continues.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Self defense - best defense
The battle between the contenders for the leadership of the VVD, the liberal-conservative party is getting fiercer and fiercer .
RITA VERDONK
Verdonk is working on sending back criminals from the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean. Antillians are strongly overrepresented in violent crime in the Netherlands. The 22 municipalities with a significant group of Antillians support (Dutch) Verdonk's plan to send back repeat offenders. Last Friday the council of judges warned that this might be against EU treaties. Citizens of the Dutch Antilles are automatically also citizens of The Netherlands, according to the 1954 Statute that shapes the legal relations between the Antilles and The Netherlands. The Dutch Antilles require strict policies against Dutch citizens who come to live on their islands, sending back people who are unemployed or criminal.
MARK RUTTE
In a response contender Mark Rutte is beefing up his law-and-order image. He is pushing for the right to selfdefense of house and shopowner's that are burglarised. Right now it is so that Dutch citizens who use violence against intruders are treated as criminals by the police and the courts. Rutte argues that the state should be on the side of the victims of crime and not on the side of the criminals. His argument was pasted in huge letters on the front page of the right-wing and populist "De Telegraaf" last Friday 21 April.
My take on it is that the leadership of the VVD is afraid that Rita Verdonk is not the right person to lead their party. Verdonk will split the party up. VVD Old-timer Nijpels has said
"I get the feeling that if she becomes the political leader (lijsttrekker), we will have taken on a walking disaster". The article in the "De Telegraaf" is the result of string pulling by VVD strategist to bolster the appeal of Mark Rutte. Verdonk is very popular with right-wing voters.
Still the struggle for the VVD leadership is good for the popularity of the party in the polls. The party is part of the ruling right-wing coalitions whose tight economic and fiscal policies are cauing hardship for parts of the Dutch population. Due to the lack of strong personalities in the political leadership the right wing was losing its popularity as was shown in the red flood rising in the municipal election on 7 March. The battle between Rutte and Verdonk seems to be countering that trend.
Mark Rutte
Rita Verdonk
Self Defense
RITA VERDONK
Verdonk is working on sending back criminals from the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean. Antillians are strongly overrepresented in violent crime in the Netherlands. The 22 municipalities with a significant group of Antillians support (Dutch) Verdonk's plan to send back repeat offenders. Last Friday the council of judges warned that this might be against EU treaties. Citizens of the Dutch Antilles are automatically also citizens of The Netherlands, according to the 1954 Statute that shapes the legal relations between the Antilles and The Netherlands. The Dutch Antilles require strict policies against Dutch citizens who come to live on their islands, sending back people who are unemployed or criminal.
MARK RUTTE
In a response contender Mark Rutte is beefing up his law-and-order image. He is pushing for the right to selfdefense of house and shopowner's that are burglarised. Right now it is so that Dutch citizens who use violence against intruders are treated as criminals by the police and the courts. Rutte argues that the state should be on the side of the victims of crime and not on the side of the criminals. His argument was pasted in huge letters on the front page of the right-wing and populist "De Telegraaf" last Friday 21 April.
My take on it is that the leadership of the VVD is afraid that Rita Verdonk is not the right person to lead their party. Verdonk will split the party up. VVD Old-timer Nijpels has said
"I get the feeling that if she becomes the political leader (lijsttrekker), we will have taken on a walking disaster". The article in the "De Telegraaf" is the result of string pulling by VVD strategist to bolster the appeal of Mark Rutte. Verdonk is very popular with right-wing voters.
Still the struggle for the VVD leadership is good for the popularity of the party in the polls. The party is part of the ruling right-wing coalitions whose tight economic and fiscal policies are cauing hardship for parts of the Dutch population. Due to the lack of strong personalities in the political leadership the right wing was losing its popularity as was shown in the red flood rising in the municipal election on 7 March. The battle between Rutte and Verdonk seems to be countering that trend.
Mark Rutte
Rita Verdonk
Self Defense
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Battle for Dutch Right-wing leadership heats up
The elections in 2007 are getting nearer and battles lines are being drawn.
A few days ago Rita Verdonk of the Liberal-Conservative VVD made her candidacy public for the position of election leader for the 2007 elections (lijsttrekker). The election to become lijsttrekker of the VVD will be held on 31 May and the 40.000 members of the VVD will be able to vote.
The vote contest is between Rita Verdonk, Mark Rutte (English) and Jelleke Veenendaal. Only Verdonk and Mark Rutte are serious candidates. Mark Rutte is the secretary of Education. It is not a position that gives one a clear profile. Verdonk is the hardline minister of Immigration and Intergration. She is a law and order politician, the law is the compass to which she sets her course.
With regards to Immigration and Intergration she has not set her own course, but carries out laws that have been drafted and adopted by Labour politicians. The present immigration laws notably have been drafted (English, third paragraph) by Job Cohen, the present Labour Mayor of Amsterdam. The difference between the Labour politicians and Rita Verdonk is that the latter strictly and narrowly carries out the law, including deporting thousands of asylum seekers.
The clear course that she steers has given her a strong profile and great popularity among that segment of the Dutch population bothered by immigration. She is also very unpopular among people who live in areas not touched by immigration or people who like or benefit from a multicultural society and open borders.
Several of the bosses of the Liberal-Conservative party are coming out against her. She has obviously upset the applecart of the people in charge of the Liberal Conservatives. It seems that her candidacy was a surprise to the old guard of the VVD.
Mrs. Verdonk is trying to positioning herself as a politician "who makes good on her promises". This is clearly a attempt to harvest in the furrow ploughed and sown by Pim Fortuyn. Her promise is credible. It fits her profile. She added to want to "save the Netherlands" from a disastrous Leftist government. This is a fear on the right wing, after the desastrous Municipal elections of March the Seventh which seemed to flow as a red river rising over the low countries.
Mark Rutte responded sharply to the hidden but intended barb against his lack of spine and conviction:
A few days ago Rita Verdonk of the Liberal-Conservative VVD made her candidacy public for the position of election leader for the 2007 elections (lijsttrekker). The election to become lijsttrekker of the VVD will be held on 31 May and the 40.000 members of the VVD will be able to vote.
The vote contest is between Rita Verdonk, Mark Rutte (English) and Jelleke Veenendaal. Only Verdonk and Mark Rutte are serious candidates. Mark Rutte is the secretary of Education. It is not a position that gives one a clear profile. Verdonk is the hardline minister of Immigration and Intergration. She is a law and order politician, the law is the compass to which she sets her course.
With regards to Immigration and Intergration she has not set her own course, but carries out laws that have been drafted and adopted by Labour politicians. The present immigration laws notably have been drafted (English, third paragraph) by Job Cohen, the present Labour Mayor of Amsterdam. The difference between the Labour politicians and Rita Verdonk is that the latter strictly and narrowly carries out the law, including deporting thousands of asylum seekers.
The clear course that she steers has given her a strong profile and great popularity among that segment of the Dutch population bothered by immigration. She is also very unpopular among people who live in areas not touched by immigration or people who like or benefit from a multicultural society and open borders.
Several of the bosses of the Liberal-Conservative party are coming out against her. She has obviously upset the applecart of the people in charge of the Liberal Conservatives. It seems that her candidacy was a surprise to the old guard of the VVD.
Mrs. Verdonk is trying to positioning herself as a politician "who makes good on her promises". This is clearly a attempt to harvest in the furrow ploughed and sown by Pim Fortuyn. Her promise is credible. It fits her profile. She added to want to "save the Netherlands" from a disastrous Leftist government. This is a fear on the right wing, after the desastrous Municipal elections of March the Seventh which seemed to flow as a red river rising over the low countries.
Mark Rutte responded sharply to the hidden but intended barb against his lack of spine and conviction:
It is insulting to the [VVD] members that have to make an informed choice. I am not going to start mudslinging, but it is nonsense and damaging for the VVD.What else could he say?
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Hardline Verdonk will run for VVD leadership
Today Minister Verdonk of Immigration and Intergration made public to be run for the leadership of the Liberal-Conservative VVD party.
Verdonk is famous and infamous for her hardline management of the Immigration portfolio. She is hated on the Left who try to besmirch her as much as possible. She is also the only popular member of the right-wing coalition that has been governing The Netherlands since 2003 and gets lots of fanmail from the public. Verdonk has executed the policy of extraditing large numbers of illegals and 26.000 asylum seekers who had been turned down. In my opinion Verdonk has a good chance to win against the other leadership candidates Mark Rutte and unknown quantity Jelleke Veenendaal. Verdonk is popular because she keeps her word and does what she says.
The leadership position of the VVD came available after the desastrous municipal elections on March 7. VVD leader Van Aartsen stepped down.
National elections will be held in 2007.
This week Marko Pastors of Leefbaar Rotterdam (Livable Rotterdam) also announced to run nationally. This means there will be 3 contenders for on the rightwing. Verdonk, Pastors and Geert Wilders. Getting busy! The split right wing may mean loss of strength for the Right. But it will also mean that rightwing ideas will get more space in the media, which will be necessary education for the Dutch public.
Verdonk is famous and infamous for her hardline management of the Immigration portfolio. She is hated on the Left who try to besmirch her as much as possible. She is also the only popular member of the right-wing coalition that has been governing The Netherlands since 2003 and gets lots of fanmail from the public. Verdonk has executed the policy of extraditing large numbers of illegals and 26.000 asylum seekers who had been turned down. In my opinion Verdonk has a good chance to win against the other leadership candidates Mark Rutte and unknown quantity Jelleke Veenendaal. Verdonk is popular because she keeps her word and does what she says.
The leadership position of the VVD came available after the desastrous municipal elections on March 7. VVD leader Van Aartsen stepped down.
National elections will be held in 2007.
This week Marko Pastors of Leefbaar Rotterdam (Livable Rotterdam) also announced to run nationally. This means there will be 3 contenders for on the rightwing. Verdonk, Pastors and Geert Wilders. Getting busy! The split right wing may mean loss of strength for the Right. But it will also mean that rightwing ideas will get more space in the media, which will be necessary education for the Dutch public.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Verdonk: Minister of "Asylum Seeker Expelling" hits the dust, and gets up again
Dutch Minister Verdonk of Immigration and Intergration had to eat humble pie yesterday. The Left wing opposition put a motion of censure on the table because Verdonk had misled parliament a hundred times on the issue of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) providing information on expelled asylum seekers to the authorities in Congo. The information provided to the Congolese "authorities" about the stories asylum seekers had told the IND was used by Congolese authorities to persecute opposition people, including the rejected asylum seekers.
To give my readers some background: the IND started to get into heavy seas in the early nineties. After the fall of the Iron Curtain legal immigrants, illegal immigrants and asylum seekers where flocking to the Netherlands, which had a positive and easy reputation. Responsible for the legal processes concerned with all forms of immigration was the IND. After 1994 The Netherlands had 8 years of its first non Christian coalition in 70 years. The coalition was made up of the Traditional Liberally VVD, the Labour party and Democrats 66 as left of centre party. Despite the Liberal immigration rethoric of all these three parties the Liberals were already getting cold feet on immigration, which was often voiced by their brave and opinionated leader Bolkestein, presently Director General of Directorate General IV of the European Union, a heavy weight in many respects. As a result of these cold feet the IND was never expanded so that it was unable to meaningfully administer the flow of immigrants, temporary workers and asylum seekers. I know that the IND was a chaos because I had to assist in the application for work permits for technology workers from Australia, Turkey and the USA several times between 1999 and 2002 in the course of my work.
Because of the backlog and chaos 70 or 80 percent of the requests for asylum were not processed for 5 or 7 years. This happened while Labour was in the government coalition and Klaas de Vries was Minister of the interior. Again: Klaas de Vries was the MP who asked for the motion against Verdonk.
The main part of the motion next to the facts that the IND endangered the lives of failed asylum seekers and that Minister Verdonk lied about it is that only a year ago the IND started to be able to report such basic things of the names and statuses of asylum applicants and rejected asylum applicants.
Because of this new found IND transparency parliament is now able to get answers from the IND and make life for Minister Verdonk difficult. She would have had to step down if she had not won over part of the parliament, because Christian Democratic (CDA) and Democrat 66 coalition partners did not support her. She received only support from Traditional Liberal VVD and Fortuyn's remnants LPF.
Minister Verdonk replied to the criticism by recognising that it was correct. It was wrong that the IND, for which she is responsible, made the Congolese authorities privy to information that was not meant for their eyes or ears. And it is wrong that she misled Parliament about this in 20 cases. Not a hundred as was alleged. Also she admitted that this happened to other non Congo asylum seekers as well. This admission of failure plus her apology won over Democrats 66 who had supported the motion of censure. After that her crisis was over, but the debate continued for many hours, during which coalition partner CDA reluctantly allowed itself to be persuaded to return to the flock.
The Leftist parties demanded that the capacity and operations of the IND will be improved. The are right but as I have showed before the IND was already a shambles during time that Labour was responsible for the IND. Not a word about this in the Dutch press of course. If any of my Dutch readers can point me to an article that points out that Labour ex-Minister Klaas de Vries was originally responsible for the IND disaster I will be most grateful.
Meanwhile from a poll that was published this week it transpired that Minister Verdonk is the most popular and best regarded politician amongst the Dutch populace. Reasons given are her transparancy and clear language on issues that concern a sizable portion of Dutch voters:
To give my readers some background: the IND started to get into heavy seas in the early nineties. After the fall of the Iron Curtain legal immigrants, illegal immigrants and asylum seekers where flocking to the Netherlands, which had a positive and easy reputation. Responsible for the legal processes concerned with all forms of immigration was the IND. After 1994 The Netherlands had 8 years of its first non Christian coalition in 70 years. The coalition was made up of the Traditional Liberally VVD, the Labour party and Democrats 66 as left of centre party. Despite the Liberal immigration rethoric of all these three parties the Liberals were already getting cold feet on immigration, which was often voiced by their brave and opinionated leader Bolkestein, presently Director General of Directorate General IV of the European Union, a heavy weight in many respects. As a result of these cold feet the IND was never expanded so that it was unable to meaningfully administer the flow of immigrants, temporary workers and asylum seekers. I know that the IND was a chaos because I had to assist in the application for work permits for technology workers from Australia, Turkey and the USA several times between 1999 and 2002 in the course of my work.
Because of the backlog and chaos 70 or 80 percent of the requests for asylum were not processed for 5 or 7 years. This happened while Labour was in the government coalition and Klaas de Vries was Minister of the interior. Again: Klaas de Vries was the MP who asked for the motion against Verdonk.
The main part of the motion next to the facts that the IND endangered the lives of failed asylum seekers and that Minister Verdonk lied about it is that only a year ago the IND started to be able to report such basic things of the names and statuses of asylum applicants and rejected asylum applicants.
Because of this new found IND transparency parliament is now able to get answers from the IND and make life for Minister Verdonk difficult. She would have had to step down if she had not won over part of the parliament, because Christian Democratic (CDA) and Democrat 66 coalition partners did not support her. She received only support from Traditional Liberal VVD and Fortuyn's remnants LPF.
Minister Verdonk replied to the criticism by recognising that it was correct. It was wrong that the IND, for which she is responsible, made the Congolese authorities privy to information that was not meant for their eyes or ears. And it is wrong that she misled Parliament about this in 20 cases. Not a hundred as was alleged. Also she admitted that this happened to other non Congo asylum seekers as well. This admission of failure plus her apology won over Democrats 66 who had supported the motion of censure. After that her crisis was over, but the debate continued for many hours, during which coalition partner CDA reluctantly allowed itself to be persuaded to return to the flock.
The Leftist parties demanded that the capacity and operations of the IND will be improved. The are right but as I have showed before the IND was already a shambles during time that Labour was responsible for the IND. Not a word about this in the Dutch press of course. If any of my Dutch readers can point me to an article that points out that Labour ex-Minister Klaas de Vries was originally responsible for the IND disaster I will be most grateful.
Meanwhile from a poll that was published this week it transpired that Minister Verdonk is the most popular and best regarded politician amongst the Dutch populace. Reasons given are her transparancy and clear language on issues that concern a sizable portion of Dutch voters:
While Verdonk was fighting for her political life on Wednesday, it was announced she had been voted the best politician of the year in a new opinion poll, mainly because of her "clear language" and "trustworthiness".In the same poll she also scored third as the most unpopular politician, showing that there is still a portion of the population that has not abandoned mass immigration and Multiculturalism.
Friday, November 04, 2005
Attempt to shoot Minister Verdonk of Intergration and Foreigners
Earlier this week the office of Minister Verdonk was shot at. Several shots were fired and a window was badly damaged. The shots were probably fired from residential buildings accross the street from the Minister's office.
In a response security measures have been increased. Minister Verdonk wore a bullit proof vest to the commemoration of the assasination of her friend Van Gogh.
In a response security measures have been increased. Minister Verdonk wore a bullit proof vest to the commemoration of the assasination of her friend Van Gogh.
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