Politics

Over the last week and a bit, I've taken notice of how the coming national election (on June 9th) is rearing its head in the public space. Walking to the train station, or along a busy road, one can seen election posters on billboards as well as televised or printed debates featured in the newspaper. While the Dutch haven't gone to the lengths of the US, where campaigning starts at least one year before the election, it seems the Dutch put a year long campaign into approximately 3 weeks. This timing of course has to do with the untimely fall of the previous cabinet but in terms of public 'buzz' the election was only present in the past couple of weeks.

I can't vote in this coming election because I am not a Dutch citizen. However, in De Pers today there was a two page long piece about how Mark Rutte, the leader of the VVD, could possibly become the next MP if the results from the latest polls would be correct. Although these are only polls, the prediction of Mark Rutte from the VVD becoming the next PM could have serious consequences to how people live their everyday lives here in Rotterdam. Rutte is finally out on top of the electoral pack despite appearing to loose his party's seats since 2008. He was unfavoured in parliament and public debates because he was seen as the harbinger of economic death, telling everyone that there would be an impending economic recession that other political parties assured the Dutch public, would not be as devastating as Rutte predicted. As it turns out, Rutte came out looking like a genius and all other parties have stuck their tails between their legs and backed Rutte's plan for economic recovery plans.

I ask myself if having Rutte's party, the VVD, in parliament would be a bad thing? It wouldn't be if you agree with having a right-wing party (by Dutch standards although it technically falls into the liberal category), which advocates for a smaller government and champions individual freedoms. This doesn't sound that bad, does it? However, while this party tends to be relatively progressive on the social front by believing in a firm separation of church and state for instance, it is also a party that supports tough immigration legislation. When looking at the choices, the VVD is probably the safest right-wing party that could come to stand if the election garnered the right-wing more support than any of the other three more liberal parties that held onto the majority of seats during the last election.

If asked for my personal opinion, I would vote in a left-wing party (and that's all I'll say) to provide the next PM of the Netherlands. The government is notoriously split which is why I say 'providing the majority', not that left-wing parties can be counted on to push the same agenda, all the time. The reason for this is because I think the other more right-wing parties would definitely change the way that everyday life in the Krachtwijk/immigrant dominant region of Rotterdam Noord would occur. Less spending on community projects, more focus on integration that at the same time could be curbed or the bill footed solely on the immigrant themselves, would definitely change life here in the neighbourhood as I know it.

For a brief overview of each of the parties (in English) click on the following link from the nrc.nl website. This is also the article where I got most of the above information concerning individual parties so please check it out if you'd like more background on this post or to see where I recieved my information from.

While I can't cast my own vote and I try to refrain from giving my opinion too much I would be happier knowing that whatever decision people make, it's an informed decision.

The alternative is having the example that I had today at my biking lessons. After two and a half hours of hard work on the bikes the participants, the volunteers and I were enjoying a quick coffee before heading off to our other appointments of the day (my new coffee addiction that has come about through this fieldwork is a topic for another post). As we looked through the papers, which is where I found the article on Mark Rutte, we began to chat about who was able to vote and if able, who would choose to vote. One of the participants piped up and said that she would be voting for the VVD because they were going to give money to programs such as ours and that those with less money, would receive more (I'm sure picturing such families as her own family that moved to the Netherlands). This is unfortunately not what the party stands for (the exact opposite in fact) and while my colleagues explained this to her, I wondered how the turn out of this election would fall.

I'm guessing only time will tell.