Netherlands Election !

[JFSOCC]

to My South-African friend (long time no see) We have a Mixed Member representational government. Meaning you campaign to gain seats in parliament. Everyone who gains seats has them until the next election. The leader of the party with the most seats gets the privilege of forming a coalition, which has to get 75/150 (Ideally over that) of the total seats. this means coalition talks, compromise and some months of inaction. Should the largest party fail to achieve a coalition with other parties it gets a little more complicated, but the simplified version is that the next biggest party in line gets a chance.

 

Now, it has to be said, all parties have from the outset said that they refuse to join a coalition with PVV and Wilders. VVD (Right wing party which has been in government for over a decade now) which is the clear winner in absolute number of seats, has tried this before, and it was (predictably) a disaster. You heard the term lame duck president? try lame duck government from day one.

 

However, since the PVV is going to get about 19 seats (out of 150), and no-one wants them in their coalition, making a coalition that makes it past 75 is going to be very difficult, especially because our political landscape is so splintered.

Edited March 15, 2017 by JFSOCC

[Meshugger]

Tell us about this Rutte (or whathever the name of that winner is).

 

Is he yet another open market, anti-union, pro-"work time flexibility", open borders, tax-eliminating, Bilderberg-participating "rightist"? 

[Darkpriest]

I believe in general right wingers still won big time in NL. It's just the most votes went into central right wing instead of extreme right. Left wing is still out of the picture and will be gone from any governing significance. The hard part is, building a coalition for the winner.

[Azdeus]

*Because of their stances on Privacy, civil rights, copyright, DRM and patent law, education, negative income tax, doubling seats in parliament, decreasing power of European commission in favour of the European parliament, and their intent to regulate drugs, they seem a great fit for me. They also would be the first and only party not run by technologically illiterate morons.

Oh and I forgot, they want to give asylum to Edward Snowden, which I support.

I was supposed to go down there to help the Pirate Party campaign, but too many things interfered.

 

I really, really want a tech-literate party in the riksdag aswell, they don't have to be there in significant numbers, just enough of them to be able to inform the other politicians what the **** they are doing. :/

[JFSOCC]

You're welcome to come even now. I think if the pirate party wants to gain ground they're going to have to campaign and make more noise every day for the next four years. most of the people I've spoken too hadn't even bothered to learn about the party program, as they'd already dismissed it as a fringe party. more visibility is needed..

 

to meshugger, sort of. except for the-union busting part, the Netherlands has a history which ensures that both left and right wing parties respect strong and active unions.

VVD is the type of "pulled yourself up by your own bootlaces" narrative, and little to no government subsidies to culture, public services (like public television), privatisation of the energy, healthcare, education and transportation sectors, they even privatised social housing to great detriment to the poor. During their years in power they've cut spending when investment was most needed, forced vulnerable nations like Greece through austerity measures that have further crippled their economy through their influence in the EU. They forced austerity when we needed to invest and then patted themselves on the back for the most anaemic of economic recoveries (with this year being the first year of marginal growth)

Their cabinet had their own version of "states rights" rhetoric when they moved responsibility for many social welfare and healthcare institutions to municipalities, many of which have been forced to cut spending or gotten problems because they were overwhelmed by their new responsibilities. It's a mess. It also means that depending on what part of the country you now live in, you may or may not have a worse chance to be entitled to help. So much for equality.

And their immigration policy has been so bad that they've been called out by the UN on several occasions for human rights violations.

 

I'd really hoped that this country would change with these elections, problem is that the media loves following the frames the government or Wilders set out, and thus they talk about the topics their way, and this has sadly shaped debate and public opinion.

[Azdeus]

I'd go, but since I'm on sickleave there might be alot of headaches with the social insurance agency, more trouble than it'd be worth I think.

It's the same problem here really, noone really knows about them, they only assume they want to pirate software and music without anyone being able to sue them, so they keep on their chosen track and chosen parties and don't dare stick their heads outside the comfort zone.

 

The Pirate Party had some luck when the Pirate Bay was hot stuff, but that has long since declined.

[Gfted1]

"The Pirate Party" sounds asinine and negatively impacts their seriousness as a party, imo. They should call themselves Tecnomancers or something jazzy. 

[HoonDing]

"

Tell us about this Rutte (or whathever the name of that winner is).

 

Is he yet another open market, anti-union, pro-"work time flexibility", open borders, tax-eliminating, Bilderberg-participating "rightist"?"

 

He's an Arab.

[JFSOCC]

"

Tell us about this Rutte (or whathever the name of that winner is).

 

Is he yet another open market, anti-union, pro-"work time flexibility", open borders, tax-eliminating, Bilderberg-participating "rightist"?"

 

He's an Arab.

And he was born in Kenia. Oh wait, birther issues don't actually cause legal restrictions on eligibility here, uhm well, he has small hands, no? What else...

 

Well, he's smug, annoyingly so.

Anyway, let's drop this bull**** angle and not get tangled in irrelevancy (yet again)

[Meshugger]

A smug arab kenyan? What? Did you guys get Obama?

[JFSOCC]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rutte

[Meshugger]

I am asking for your opinions about him, not your ability to link to wikipedia.

[Blarghagh]

He's boring white bread that distances himself from every mistake he makes and claims ownership of other people's successes all the while being incredibly smug and not actually contributing anything. He's the human equivelant of "You made this? I made this" meme.

 

Excuse me, I'll try to leave my salt deposits elsewhere next time.

[Chilloutman]

He's boring white bread that distances himself from every mistake he makes and claims ownership of other people's successes all the while being incredibly smug and not actually contributing anything. He's the human equivelant of "You made this? I made this" meme.

 

Excuse me, I'll try to leave my salt deposits elsewhere next time.

so basically Hillary

[JFSOCC]

He's well educated, utterly sure of himself and his politics, comes across as smug and superior, and enjoys crafting an image of himself as a strong leader and negotiator.

He certainly seems to have a high opinion of himself.

Whether you agree with that image of him depends on your political leanings.

He believes the narrative that hard work ensures success, so those who fail must have themselves to blame.

He argued for and pushed through policy that fines people for taking too long to complete their academic studies, while ignoring the fact that under this new rule he himself would have been fined as he took 10 years to complete his own. So I also think he's a hypocrite.

He loves Bach, which personally I find the most boring of all composers, but Bach has a large fanbase so. Even so his party has cancelled or significantly reduced all funding to our philharmonic orchestras, public classical radio and our most excellent conservatory.

He's single and gets annoyed when reporters mention this.

I've heard he's got a strong handshake.

[Blarghagh]

 

He's boring white bread that distances himself from every mistake he makes and claims ownership of other people's successes all the while being incredibly smug and not actually contributing anything. He's the human equivelant of "You made this? I made this" meme.

 

Excuse me, I'll try to leave my salt deposits elsewhere next time.

so basically Hillary

 

Without the warm personality.

[HoonDing]

"He's single and gets annoyed when reporters mention this."

 

lol