I truly hope that the elections France, the Netherlands and Germany are not a complete disaster. Fingers crossed for you guys!
Elections are now a month away, and with everything that is happening in the USA, UK and France I'm really anxious. My usual strategy is to vote for the woman highest on the list of the party I'm voting for, but this year I also am taking sexual orientation into the equation. While I know Dutch people don't usually discuss politics in private, I actually mainly wanted to share here a list of lesbian/gay/bisexual people in the different parties that you can vote for this year (over 30 LGBs!!!), including their position on the list;
D66; Women; Vera Bergkamp (6), Corine van Dun (45) Men; Rob Jetten (12), Rutger Schonis (23), Bastiaan Winkel (34)
Artikel1; Women; Simone van Saarloos (8), Olave Basabose (9), Juanita Hernandez (11) Men; Robert Witte (12), Glenn Helberg (18)
VVD; Men; Mark Harbers (8), Sjoerd Potters (31), Jeroen van Wijngaarden (45), Dylan Lochtenberg (77)
50+; Men; Henk Krol (1), Theo Heere (25), André van Wanrooij (32) Women; Natascha Kroonstuiver (16)
GL; Men; Tom van den Nieuwenhuijzen (20), Rocco Piers (37), Women; Sophie Schers (35)
PvdA; Men; Henk Nijboer (7), Richard vd Burgt (57) Women; Marinka Mulder (48)
CDA; Women; Hank Bruins Slot (9) Men; Jan Hutten (32), Rogier Havelaar (48)
PvddD; Women; Michelle van Doorn (19), Ines Kostic (28)
PVV; Men; Rob de Jong (31)
SP; none
"Replies are a combination of nonsense, unrelated comments and inside jokes"
I truly hope that the elections France, the Netherlands and Germany are not a complete disaster. Fingers crossed for you guys!
"A universe that needed someone to observe it in order to collapse it into existence would be a pretty sorry universe indeed."
Wilders campaign launch last week was in the town where I was born. Because of the highest support rate there, like 68%. =S.
"Replies are a combination of nonsense, unrelated comments and inside jokes"
Exit polls seem to be good... not claiming victory yet, but they seem good.
"A universe that needed someone to observe it in order to collapse it into existence would be a pretty sorry universe indeed."
I feel so odd. The sentiment here is tense locally because of the riots near the Turkish consul last saturday, at the center of sudden political tension between Turkey and Netherlands. The makeshift voting office in a former church was manned by very nice people, and they proclaimed I was the 1000th person to vote at that location today. They offered me candy and soda as a reward, but I refused explaining Im on a diet. Then, they gave me an apple. I walked out of there feeling everything would be ok. I hope it will.
"Replies are a combination of nonsense, unrelated comments and inside jokes"
Well thank God we are not waking up in a populist world, but still... our fragmented politics resulted in a large win for Wilders and even more fragmentation. The labour party suffered a loss of a whopping 29 seats, holy hell. It can't be 100% sure what the possible coalitions will turn out to be in the negotiations. No matter what, it will be complex.
Here is a translation chart;
1. VVD (People's party for freedom and democracy); 33 (-8)
2. PVV (Wilders); 20 (+5)
3. D66 (progressive liberals); 19 (+7)
4. CDA (Christian democrats); 19 (+6)
5. GroenLinks (green/left); 14 (+7)
6. SP (socialists); 14 (-1)
7. PvdA (labour party); 9 (-29!)
8. CU (christian scary party); 5 (-/-)
9. 50+ (what do you think); 4 (+2)
10. PvdD (party for animals); 5 (+3)
11. SGP (even more scary christian party); 3 (-/-)
12. DENK (turkish equality party or something vague); 3 (+3)
13. FvD (former think tank with nationalist viewpoints); 2 (+2)
So yeah, a lot of options without Wilders;
VVD + D66 + CDA is only a few seats short for a succesful coalition, they can negotiate with every other party really.
"Replies are a combination of nonsense, unrelated comments and inside jokes"
That's exactly why I'm not too worried about how many seats the AfD will win in our elections (well, other than that it will reveal just how much racist scum we have in this country), because there is no chance in hell either of the two main parties will turn to them for a coalition.
I'm sure they'd rather govern with each other than the AfD.