Atlantic Sentinel

Tag: Dutch Election 2017

Parliamentary elections were held in the Netherlands on March 15. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s liberal VVD placed first with 33 out of 150 seats. The social democratic Labor Party suffered an historic defeat, going down from 38 to nine seats.

  • Dutch Green Party Rejects Proposal to Merge with Labor

    The Dutch Greens have shot down a proposal from the Labor Party to merge after next year’s election.

    Labor’s Diederik Samsom, who faces a leadership challenge from his social affairs minister, Lodewijk Asscher, had suggested such a pact after his Green party counterpart, Jesse Klaver, called for a permanent coalition of left-wing parties.

    Klaver said on Monday that the Greens, Labor, the far-left Socialist Party and the centrist liberal Democrats, who are polling at a combined 57 out of 150 seats, should partner in order to ensure the next government will reduce income inequality (already low by international standards), invest more in green energy and reverse liberalizations in health care and the labor market. (more…)

  • Asscher to Challenge Dutch Labor Party Leader

    Mark Rutte Lodewijk Asscher
    Mark Rutte and Lodewijk Asscher, the prime minister and social affairs minister of the Netherlands, attend an EU summit in Brussels, March 16 (European Council)

    Dutch social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher will challenge the leader of his party, Diederik Samsom, to become Labor’s prime ministerial candidate in 2017, the public broadcaster NOS reports.

    Asscher, who was the Labor Party leader in Amsterdam before he joined the cabinet in 2012, has long been seen as a potential future leader of the party.

    On the very day NOS broke the news, the left-leaning newspaper de Volkskrant published a letter from local Labor Party officials calling on Asscher to take over as leader. (more…)

  • Echoes of Clinton-Trump Contest in the Netherlands

    Mark Rutte
    Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte answers questions from members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, July 5 (European Parliament)

    Tom-Jan Meeus has a good piece in Politico about the state of Dutch politics five months out from the next election.

    Meeus, who is a political columnist and former United States correspondent for NRC Handelsblad, argues that there is a American influence on this election: Should Donald Trump win in November, Meeus expects his Dutch counterpart, Geert Wilders, will shift further to the right. Mark Rutte, the incumbent center-right prime minister, could benefit if Hillary Clinton prevails.

    This probably oversells the effect of America’s elections on the Netherlands’, but Meeuw is onto something. (more…)