Leefbaar Nederland: what's happening?

Apparently it is not the cause of the Catholic Party (or Purple party as they would say it here) but just bad running of the city. It's mainly "angry young men" voting for this party. Though not highly educated they have lots of money. It is indeed a worrying trend which has already been in Belgium a long time (Vlaams Blok).

Immigration is the defining issue for Europe over the next 20 or so years (unsurprisingly since it borders 2 continents from which a lot of displacement is expected). The War on Immigration is as futile as the War on Drugs, but it's going to take a lot of failed far-right policies and nasty election results before that realisation hits.

Test.

Weird, the server just doesnt want to accept my response. He comes up with some bogus "you probably manually hacked the URL string" bollox.

STEVO TO THREAD!

(and, indeed, to forums generally)

What's with this bastard error??!!:

Request Error Variables not present on URL string: probably you manually hacked the URL string incorrectly.

I did not do such a thing. I'll sent you my reply per email Robin.

Pity Omar couldn't post his answer; it’s a bastard to explain, let alone succinctly. For Robin, and anyone else interested here’s my attempt..

Since 1994 the Netherlands has been governed by a so-called ‘Purple’ coalition consisting of the right-wing pro-free market Liberals (blue), small centrist Lib-Dem-a-like D66, and Labour (red). An unlikely coalition in many respects, the salient point being it’s the first post-war Dutch government without the Christian Democrats.

Major issues in 1994: Government finances/debt, high unemployment. ‘Purple’s’ motto Work, Work, Work. The Christian Democrats struggled badly in unaccustomed opposition (compare with Tories) and as the economy ticked along nicely, unemployment fell, other issues began to dominate, massive transport congestion, trains running late, struggling schools, long hospital waiting lists, personnel shortages, (does this sound familiar fellow Brits?) and rising crime. Add to this often-unsaid concerns about immigration, and levels of criminality amongst second-generation immigrants, in this densely populated country.

In local government dissatisfaction with the established parties saw the emergence of grass-roots local parties, ideologically vague but with a distinct local identity campaigning mostly on pavement- politics issues, often with a popular local celebrity involved. These parties e.g. Leebaar Utrecht/Liveable Utrecht, having scored some noticeable success during council elections, decided to form a national party to contest the coming general election in May: Leefbaar Nederland (Liveable Holland). Again ideologically indistinct, but seemingly well placed to exploit increasing dissatisfactions at the ruling government and with an extensive Proportional Representation quite capable of getting seats in parliament.

This new party required a prospective parliamentary leader, some one to be the public face of the party, preferably well known and charismatic. Step forward Pim Fortuyn:

Fortuyn is a complex figure, flamboyant, bald, gay, and almost always in a 3-piece suit. A former professor, turned political commentator, he was on TV discussion programmes expressing either contempt for the government, or anti-Islamic and anti-immigrant sentiment. Despite the latter Leefbaar Nederland chose him as their candidate and Fortuyn embarked on a vigorous electoral campaign. From nowhere the opinion polls gave Leefbaar Nederland enough parliamentary seats in the opinion polls to be a major player. Fortuyn was barely out of the news.

Then he gave an interview to a newspaper when he expressed the sort of opinions he’s been mouthing off for years, but that his party had requested he not express i.e. Islam is a backward religion, scrap Schengen, reintroduce tight border controls, no more Islamic immigrants, no more asylum seekers, change the constitution regarding anti-discrimination. Very nasty stuff, too much even for the political neophytes of Leefbaar Nederland, who met in crisis and threw him out of the party.

Many happily wrote him off, but Fortuyn merely responded he would stand for parliament anyway only with his own party, whilst retaining the leadership of the local ‘Leefbaar’ party in his home city Rotterdam. The previous impressive polls for Leefbaar Nederland merely shifted in Fortuyn’s favour. In last Wednesday’s local election in their first election his party became the largest on the council and to top it all Fortuyn managed to wipe the floor with the governing party leaders in a quite extraordinary televised debate last week, none of whom seemed to have a clue how to deal with is poisonous one-liners and out right teasing (the Labour Party leader couldn’t hide his loathing but came across as arrogant, the Liberal leader looked shell-shocked).

Fortuyn is a very gifted, but very dangerous demagogue. Is he extreme-right? Yes in his vile immigrant and Islam bashing but he’s too much a maverick to fit in with the Haiders, Filip De Winters, Fini’s etc, on some social issues he’s liberal e.g. abortion, gay rights (he flaunts his sexuality) or euthanasia. Many in the party in Rotterdam do not necessarily share all his views. What he has done is rock the political boat here in a way that was previously unthinkable, and in doing so completely undermine the governing parties who look unlikely to continue in their current coalition. More worryingly he’s injected a nasty measure of racism and Islamophobia and into Dutch politics. The other parties look out manoeuvred and flat-footed. Voices in the Dutch Liberals call for a switch to more right-wing agenda unless Fortuyn self-destructs before the election he stands to get a major fraction in parliament, largely on the basis of protest votes. After that it’s anyone’s guess.

PS on a personal note, as an immigrant myself, I formally applied for Dutch citizenship today. In the future I suspect this will become much more difficult.