Dutch Elections

Attorney General Exodus, Merkel Comes To Washington, Dutch Elections

... organizations requested Bharara take steps to prevent Trump from receiving benefits from foreign governments by way of the Trump Organization while president. Trump’s political opponents questioned whether Bharara was sacked to prevent him from opening that can of worms. Another controversial decision by the Trump administration: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will travel to Asia this week without a press corps. The administration claims it’s a cost saver, but media outlets pay for the trip. The absence of U. S. press on Tillerson’s trip to Japan, South Korea, and China could mean foreign media (in particular Chinese state media) will shape the narrative around the visit. It’s a busy week for U. S. diplomacy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Washington Tuesday to meet for the first time with Trump.  Their relationship got off to a rocky start when Trump personally blamed Merkel for ruining her country over Germany’s refugee policy when she beat him for Time person of the year in 2015. Trump’s chief trade advisor, Peter Navarro, ...

Eur/usd Breaks 1.07 On Yellen, Dutch Elections

... session.  In the meantime there are 3 other monetary policy announcements on the calendar tonight - the first will be the Bank of Japan followed by the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of England. None of these central banks are expected to change monetary policy but their tone will affect how the Yen, Franc and Sterling trade.  With the economy improving, the Bank of Japan is widely expected to leave interest rates steady.  The statement and comments made by Governor Kuroda should be relatively upbeat but 0.4% annualized consumer price growth keeps the central bank worried about low inflation.  They are no closer to reaching their inflation target and for this reason, will keep policy accommodative for the foreseeable future.  The Bo J is in no position to be thinking about raising interest rates and any talk is ...

Give It Back’ Netherlands Mp Orders Queen Maxima To Give Up Her Argentine Passport

... dominating the issue. Mr Buma has gained ground by adopting a tough line similar to Mr Rutte's on immigration, adding a focus on communal values and a touch of nationalism to tap voter concerns about Dutch identity. He has also proposed introducing singing the national anthem in schools and mandatory community service. The Royal House is yet to comment on the matter, which coincided with the announcement of a state visit by the President of Argentina later this month. Argentina and the Netherlands work closely together with the European nation a principal investor and trading partner to Queen Maxima’s birthplace. Getty Images. 1 of 20. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands attends the royal wedding of Prince Carl Philip of Sweden and Sofia Hellqvist at The Royal Palace. Opinion polls show Mr Buma trailing Mr Rutte's VVD by four percentage points and just one point behind ...

What You Need To Know

... parties he'll need in his coalition will be even smaller, so he'll need at least three or four parties to join him. If you can find even one, I challenge you to find two, let alone three or four," Krouwel said. Dutch parties have indicated that they would not team up with Wilders, and those who have entertained the idea have said they will only do so if he drops his anti-immigration stance - the centrepiece of his manifesto. What's more likely is that parliament will appoint a veteran politician to oversee the coalition negotiations. Even if Wilders's party has the most votes, Rutte's party, if it comes in second, will likely form a coalition and stay in power. A long negotiation process to form a coalition is expected - three months is normal and in the past more complex alliances have taken seven ...

Fake News Or Hacking Absent In Dutch Election Campaign

... was not a prominent campaign theme, it did play an important procedural role. After the election campaign in the United States, politicians, government authorities, and media in the Netherlands became highly attentive to the risks of fake news and foreign hacking. Pirate candidate Ancilla van de Leest told EUobserver that she had her doubts about the influence of fake news. “I have seen very little fake news,” she said. “Even if someone shares fake news, in particular on platforms like Facebook or Twitter, that will be immediately followed by hundreds of comments that point to the actual truth. There is a self-cleaning mechanism.”. Last week, Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad published a report confirming Van de Leest's assessment. The daily looked at a hundred political news items that were often shared on social media. While some were misleading or exaggerated, none were actual fake news - in accordance with the definition of a fabricated, politically-motivated ...

White Innocence And The Dutch Elections

... helpers wear traditional thick brown or black body paint, bright red lips, and Afro wigs, rather than “politically correct” alternatives like rainbow colors. Other MPs quickly expressed outrage at the proposal, but Wilders’s party is the exception that proves the rule when it comes to defending Dutch “heritage” against charges of racism. Fearing the PVV’s growing electoral clout, Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the ruling center-right Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD, People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy) published a stern open letter to the nation in the major newspapers, demanding that citizens and immigrants either conform to “Dutch norms” or get out of the country. Rutte’s letter was widely criticized across the political spectrum as pandering; less remarked upon, however, was his comment that those who call “ordinary Dutch people racists” for their support of Zwarte Piet “ spoil ...

Dutch Election’s Big Winner Proves To Be Greenleft

... hailed by his enthusiastic supporters as the “Jessiah”. According to a generally reliable Ipsos exit poll, the party – formed 25 years ago by a merger of communists, pacifists, evangelicals and self-styled radicals – quadrupled its MPs from four to 16 after a storming campaign by Klaver. “This is a fantastic result for us, a historic victory,” said the party chairwoman, Marjolein Meijer. The result showed there was “very fertile ground in the Netherlands for change and a positive and hopeful story”, she said. “For us this is just the beginning.”. The party celebrated its historic advance with a tweet showing a gif of Kermit the Frog dancing for joy. Groen Links (@groenlinks). March 15, 2017. Sometimes compared to Canada’s youthful prime minister, Justin Trudeau , Klaver – who has a Moroccan father and a mother of Indonesian descent – said on polling day that the left’s answer to the far right’s rise in Europe was to stand ...

Polls Open In Closely Watched Dutch Elections

... the other hand, he has a voice that people like, a lot of people in the Netherlands. So that's really worrying. MARTIN: So she says there are a lot of people who appreciate what Wilders is saying. What are you hearing this morning from Wilders supporters. LANGFITT: I haven't met many here this morning. But I was down south in Wilders country over the weekend where he was campaigning. And a lot of people were saying that the government seems more concerned about refugees than native-born Dutch. And I also met this Wilders supporter. His name's Ralph Jansen (ph). He's a CPA. And he says that a lot of the backers for Wilder's party - it's called the Party for Freedom, PVV for short - is - a lot of supporters are a lot broader than people think. It's a much broader demographic. And here's how Jansen put it. RALPH JANSEN: The Dutch people think that all the voters of the PVV are low educated, low paid, stupid ...

Dutch People Head To The Polls For 2017 Parliamentary Elections

... Pieters on March 15, 2017 - 07:44. Election time in the Netherlands - directions to voting stations. Photo: Onderwijsgek / Wikipedia. Today the Dutch are voting for a new parliament at one of 8,891 polling stations. The first polling stations to open were in Castricum and Amsterdam at midnight. Hundreds of votes were already cast, RTL Nieuws reports. All polling stations are open between 7:30 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Don't know where to vote? A map with polling stations per municipality can be found here. Milo Lambers from Haarlem was the first Dutch person to cast his vote in the parliamentary election. He waited for over an hour in front of the Castricum polling station before it opened. He would not tell RTL who he voted for, but did say that the party falls on the left of the political spectrum. "Both the party and the people who belong to it ideologically best fit with my views", he said to the broadcaster. Between midnight and 1:00 a.m. a total of 97 people cast their vote at the Castricum polling station, located at the flower kiosk at the train station. Many young people voted in Tolhuistuin ...

Where Are The Battlegrounds In The Dutch Election

... in the Netherlands’ second city. It took 32 percent in 2012, ahead of the Liberals on 20.5 percent, but the 2015 provincial elections saw the Freedom Party topping the poll, ahead of D 66. Europe’s biggest port has a history of backing maverick politicians; it’s where Pim Fortuyn rose to prominence before he was murdered in 2002. Liberals Winning Here. If you’re looking for a typical place where Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberal Party rules the roost, it could be Wassenaar, nestled between The Hague and Leiden in South Holland and one of the richest towns in the entire country. More than 52 percent voted Liberal in 2012. In the Hague itself, the seat of the Dutch parliament and government, the battle may be between the Liberals and D 66, which both polled 18 percent in provincial elections two years ago. Green Breakthrough. Green leader Jesse Klaver has drawn comparisons with Canada's Justin Trudeau. One city his party will be ...

Steep Rise In Turnout As Dutch Vote In Divisive Elections

... Something which the Dutch prime minister from the liberal VVD party is keenly aware of. He told reporters. “This is a chance for a big democracy like the Netherlands to make a point to stop this toppling over of the domino stones of the wrong sort of populism and there is still a risk that we wake up on Thursday morning and seeing that Geert Wilders is leading the biggest party.”. Netherlands: Turnout today to surpass 80%, maybe even 85% (2012: 74.6%). Media reports some station have run out of ballots. #Dutch Election __link__/o Bo J 1 o 056 S. — Europe Elects (@Europe Elects) March 15, 2017. With hundreds of thousands of first time voters, and many undecided on the day of the vote, the result could go either way. What is sure, experts say, the Dutch are in for months of bargaining to build a ...