One might say, The New Republic journal “the liberal counterpart” of the conservative National Review. If so, it is very Lieberman-lite liberalism at best.
The New Republic has this article now:
THE NETHERLANDS IS NO LONGER A PARAGON OF ALL THINGS LIBERAL
Right Turn
by Abigail R. Esman“Open” has long been a catchword for the Netherlands, referring to everything from the flat, low-lying fields of Zuid-Holland and the curtainless windows of Amsterdam and The Hague to the country’s liberal stances on marijuana and prostitution, both of which are enjoyed freely and legally in cheerful “coffee shops” and red-lighted bordellos throughout the country. To many, the country has long seemed the apotheosis of a free, liberal, and democratic state.
But, these days, Filip Dewinter, leader of one of Europe’s most extreme far-right political parties, Belgium’s Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest), has had nothing but praise for his liberal neighbors to the north. In speech after speech over the past months, Dewinter has repeated the same refrain: “Once, Holland was the model country for everything left and progressive. Now, it is the model for the right and conservative powers.”
Having lived 7-8 years in the Netherlands, I am surprised and concerned. On the other hand, the 2002 election season saw special yet timely unrecognized circumstances, not completely unlike the 2000 Gore-Bush debacle. The consequences are not very logical yet rather daunting (for some).
During 1994-2002, the Netherlands lived through quite outstanding “years of peace of prosperity”, under governance of the Purple coalition lead by the social democratic PvdA and economically liberal VVD parties. The 2002 election campaign was expected to be a dull tussle between new leaders of PvdA and VVD (Melkert and Dijkstal) for larger control of the parliament. The Christian Democratic party CDA seemed to be in crisis; they had chosen young Balkenende to lead – they were hardly expecting immediate success.
But then along came Pim Fortuyn – a rather obscure right-wing columnist and former sociology professor. He was picked by a new Leefbaar Nederland party to lead their parliamentary list, and quickly gathered attention with his oratory style and controversial comments on immigration and “subsidy socialism”. The Volkskrant interview of February 10, 2002 produced too much controversy for other Leefbaar Nederland leaders, and Pim Fortuyn was dismissed from the parliamentary list. Fortuyn then formed his own party, LPF. In early March 2002 he won local elections in Rotterdam, as a leader of Leefbaar Rotterdam. I think that success of local Leefbaar parties helped Pim Fortuyn enormously, directly or indirectly. But the developments were pitiful for the national Leefbaar party.
The weight of Pim Fortuyn became evident during the televised debates. The new leaders of PvdA and VVD appeared not only as dull figures compared with Fortuyn, they acted outright dismissively and arrogantly towards him. Suddenly prospects of the third “purple” coalition became bleak. The CDA leader Balkenende wisely (though not surprisingly) acted as a nice guy in the middle; that alone could bring CDA back to prominence.
The circumstances became especially singular when Pim Fortuyn was murdered on May 6, 2002, just nine days before the general election. The elections went on. The winner was CDA (43 seats out of 150), still surprisingly. In hindsight, that was a logical consequence of voter’s contempt towards PvdA, VVD, and their doubts about LPF inexperience or unpredictability. The LPF got 26 seats, VVD 24 seats, PvdA 23 seats, etc.
Balkenende became the prime minister, but his CDA/LPF/VVD cabinet lasted only three months. In January 2003 there were new general elections. The PvdA with a new charismatic leader made a comeback (42 seats), but the CDA still won (44 seats). The VVD got 28 seats, the LPF dropped to 8 seats. That meant the CDA/VVD dominated conservative cabinet.
I did not experience the Balkenende years closely, but friends’ political mood is not high. What is most frequently said about modern Holland, is not what they would firstly agree. It is indeed strange to read in the “liberal” US journal article this:
Increasingly – from a crackdown on immigration to a proposal to teach intelligent design to the censorship of a TV program satirizing the royal family (despite reports that the queen herself actually enjoyed the show) – Holland is, indeed, becoming a right-wing nation, in some ways an inversion of its former self.
What happened is that indeed xenophobic politics gained some ground, and conservatives gained some appeal. But a large portion of population cannot identify themselves with current government policies and emphatically stressed concerns. In particular, they certainly wouldn’t agree that the murder of film director Theo van Gogh changed the Dutch society far more profoundly than 9/11 changed the USA, as the article of Esman claims. Theo van Gogh was not a popular figure, personal sympathy was not great. The “profound” change and rightward shift is principally evidenced by government policies (tougher immigration laws, mandatory ID carrying, increased video surveillance on streets, approved government access to records of Internet surfing, book and video purchases or rentals, phone conversations and bank transactions). There is very little evidence that Holland wanted these changes, that national security is the primary issue, that people are willing to sacrifice liberties (as well as social benefits) out of fear of Islamic terrorism.
Political turbulence and violence do have consequences – the tension with Muslim emigrants rises, the media routinely reports the incidents and discusses immigration. But current government policies and induced distrust are seen as a critical part of the vicious cycle. When the former LPF member Nawijn joins up with Belgium’s Dewinter to create a think tank aimed at examining immigration, multiculturalism, and security, we should read it as creation of a political think tank for conservative dominance. It is very ironic that the American “liberal” journal takes their intentions at face value. And the following (closing) paragraph you expect to see only in American Enterprise type journals:
Now, a little more than a year after van Gogh’s murder, Holland finds itself in a kind of social quagmire: The more repressive the government and the more Muslim-unfriendly it is perceived to be, the more radicalized its Muslim youth become. The anger is palpable: Gone are the days of carefree strolls through Amsterdam streets or smiling nods to neighbors of another race. One looks twice now. The smiles are often false – a kind of armor people wear – to protect themselves from anger and from fear.
It is instructive to compare the American and Dutch policy shifts in 2000 and 2002, respectively. Militant media bias or electoral irregularities were not problems in the Dutch case. (Pim Fortuyn did complain about media bias against him, but that was more justified than GOP preventive-deceptive whining about “liberal media bias”.) The two examples show how easily a widely successful progressive government can be replaced by opposite conservative policies. Political elitism and slight dissatisfactions can have huge consequences. And of course, media performance of politicians is a tremendous factor, whether that media performance was indeed poor or just urgedly perceived as such.
If Esman’s article ought to be believed, the mood of Dutch progressives is just desperate:
Caught in the middle, Dutch moderates have started leaving – largely for Canada and New Zealand, according to one report – and net emigration in the first half of 2004 was the largest since the 1950s. More interestingly, many moderate Dutch Muslims – mostly Turks – have started making plans to leave as well. “It’s less radical there than here,” one aspiring émigré, who planned to move to Turkey, told a Dutch newspaper.
Is that really so bad?
[Crossposted at European Tribune and Daily Kos.]
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I will just make some minor comments, as I wholeheartedly disagree with the latter part of the views expressed in your diary. I consider the present cabinet a liberal, center political coalition with fiscal sound policy to spurn future economic growth and an increase in job employment.
See my recent provocation :: I’m A Fan of Jan Peter!
The Pim Fortuyn party LPF, according to the polls, will lose all of its seats but 1 or 2. Therefore the support of Nawijn and Philip de Winter have dwindled to near zero. Leefbaar Rotterdam in the coming local election for city council will most likely lose half of their support.
Geert Wilders left the VVD party to keep a single seat party of his own in Dutch parliament. GW will most likely gain more seats by next general election in 2007.
The immigration laws being implementen were written by Job Cohen, now Mayor of Amsterdam, during the years of Paars – the purple coalition. Amsterdam is where the Theo van Gogh murder took place. Job Cohen is an exponent of the laissez faire policy of PvdA – Labor Party- during last three decades and did not tackle immigration and asylum seeker issues.
Anti-war Demonstration February 2003
The Dutch Labour Party leader, Wouter Bos, stated that his party would not take part in the demonstration, although several members of parliament and other prominent members of the Labour Party took part in the march.
My criticism on Wim Kok and the years of Paars :: Q: Dutch Justice Well Organized & Exemplary? A: No.
Minister of Justice Piet Hein Donner of CDA was voted most outstanding politician of 2005 by the left oriented Dutch press. The other politician of the year was Minister Rita Verdonk, yes the person responsible for implementing the new laws on immigration written by Paars.
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PS I believe you need to close diary content with HTML code to end italics!
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Thanks for your comments (and P.S.). But the link to NPR article is in my diary as well, just before the first quotation.
Is Balkenende economics really successful? Last year I still thought that the Dutch GDP growth is rounded to 0.0%
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Year 2003 2004 2005 2006
GDP Growth -0.1 1.7 0.8 2.5 %
CPI Consumer 2.1 1.2 1.5 1.0 %
Unemployment 5.3 6.4 6.5 5.8 %
Labor competitiveness and major investments will be on the increase in 2006.
The budget deficit will be well below ceiling of 3%.
● CPB – Forecast 2006
● OECD Data :: U.S. – U.K. – Japan – Germany – France (pdf file)
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Good statistical links.
But what about poverty “growth”?
Or decreasing buying power of youngsters?
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From your source:
Now 10.5 percent of households in the Netherlands are on the poverty line. The percentage for non-Dutch households is far higher.
About three out of 10 households among the Turkish, Moroccan and Antillean communities had a low income in 2003. That was four times greater than the rate among native Dutch households. The poverty rate among the Somali, Afghan and Iraqi communities in the Netherlands is one in two.
IMO shows the collision course of Labor with Wim Kok, while the economy was strong, the taxes were lowered which gave an impulse to consumer spending. Economy overheated with rise of salaries and no labor available to cool down the market. The Dutch couldn’t compete with other EU countries due to high labor costs. As the economy turned sour, the setback hit hardest as companies cut its labor force to overcompensate.
The above quote also suggests it’s the uncontrolled immigration and inadequate integration of those newcomers into Dutch society that inflates the number for households living under the poverty line.
30% for Turkish, Moroccan and Antillean communities
7% for Dutch households.
This clarifies much for the difficulties in the major cities with large immigrant communities, for Amsterdam already a majority seen in the educational system with children. I find this an awful statistic, and much worse than the American economy with its minorities.
Your mention of youngsters, they get hit hardest with unemployment when there are no jobs and salaries are high. I believe from memory, an unemployment rate of 25% with social benefits not easy to get as in the past.
You get one guess to tell me under which groups the crime rate is highest.
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼▼▼ READ MY DIARY ▼
So the low taxes were disastrous?! How do we tell this to libertarians? 🙂
I would continue with questions: Why it is only Wim Kok and Labour responsible for economy overheat? Couldn’t VVD be less bigoted, or conservative opposition raise some concern timely?
The same with ‘uncontrolled’ immigration and inadequate integration: the Labour policies were shortsighted or idealistic, but neither VVD nor CDA made a peep against. Why the case for concern was not made before 2001-2002? Why it had to blow up turbulently with Pim Fortuyn?
Of course, from partisan point of view, everything played out very fine for CDA and conservatives. But they did not have the guts to present that problem themselves.
Economic integration of immigrants turns out to be a big problem for EU countries. In USA economic integration is immediate, but EU immigrants hardly change their economic status.
In modern politic climates, you can hardly expect politicians (of any side) to admit their mistakes clearly, or to restrain from abuse of power. What remains is to compare them by what they give to the society, or how much they care about it. The third way labour governments gave widely booming economies, and we actually do not know well what best could have been done with them. Conservatives enhance safety fears and increase surveilance… Take your pick ;-]
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Your link leads to message for subscribers only, my link opens to complete article.
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
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Link for actual full story at TNR —
The Netherlands is no longer a paragon of all things liberal.
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY