A quicky on the Dutch elections
Just this week, it was election time in Holland. The moderate left wing party PvdA lost significantly, while the more extreme left wing party SP won a lot, almost trebled. Everyone seems to have been surprised by this. Everyone, apparently, has forgotten the last elections, where the SP was set for a major gain and the PvdA for a major loss, when, in the days before the election, the SP gain evaporated in favour of the PvdA. To me, it’s clear that these very same people now opted to vote for the party they wanted to vote for during the last election. Didn’t, then, because they hoped for a more social government with the more likely PvdA, but figured, now, that selecting a party which more closer resembled their own line of thought would give a more stronger signal to the powers that be.
Also, for the first time I saw an off the cuff interview with Rita Verdonk, the right wing almost-primary candidate of the VVD, the liberal party. She was favourite with the large right wing block of idiots in the Netherlands but only just lost her party’s leadership to a (more moderate and, seemingly, more intelligent) man. In the interview, Verdonk came across as a bit of an idiot who has nothing to say. Surprising she was so popular.
Besides the SPs major gain, the strong rise of Geert Wilders’ Partij voor de Vrijheid (Freedom Party), nine out of 150 seats in parliament, was the other major surprise. Clearly, these right wing idiots consider Wilders the true heir to Pim Fortuyn, the murdered Dutch politician, as none of the other parties running on similar agendas, including the remnants of Fortuyn’s own party, made any headway, including the one with the most reasonable agenda (that is, least absurd) and the least obnoxious individuals.
In a late night interview, on the day of elections, Wilders showed that, really, he’s not the brightest kid on the block, realising he can only remain credible to his voters if he makes it appear as if he’s the outsider with the controversial but great ideas whom no one wants to listen to.