#THENETHERLANDS: Anti-Islam Politician Suspended From Twitter "In Error"

[world politics news]

Twitter says it suspended Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders "in error" after reports that he had violated the platform's rules on hate speech.

The social network admitted it had "temporarily restricted" the outspoken anti Islam politician's access to his account on Monday.

The move came after the Freedom Party (PVV) chairman had published a tweet addressed to Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, denouncing the "violence of the intolerant ideology called Islam".

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#THENETHERLANDS: Parliament Close To Approving Lab-Grown Meat

[world politics news]

The Netherlands is one step closer to lab-grown meat. Two parties have submitted a motion in parliament to make the tasting of cultured meat possible in the Netherlands. A majority in parliament said they would vote for this motion.

Lab-grown or cultured meat is meat grown from animal cells but without any animals being killed. It is currently still banned in Europe. Researchers aren't even allowed to taste a piece. 

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#THENETHERLANDS: PM Rutte Unveils Fourth Cabinet

[world politics news]

Prime Minister Mark Rutte has unveiled his choices for the fourth cabinet he has seated since he was first elected prime minister. 

It includes several new faces, largely from his own party, the VVD (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) including Senator Eric van der Burg, a former alderman and ex-acting mayor of Amsterdam, who will be the new State Secretary for Asylum and Migration and will succeed Ankie Broekers-Knol.

Opposition Party for Freedom Leader Geert Wilders lost no time in eviscerating Van der Burg, noting on Twitter his 2017 comments about immigrants:

"The man who said: The more asylum seekers the better." (Parool, March 30, 2017) The VVD has gone mad. Pure betrayal."

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#THENETHERLANDS: PM Rutte Faces Confidence Vote After Botched Cabinet Talks

[world politics news]

 

A debate that could seal the political fate of recently re-elected Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte went on well past midnight

on Friday, after politicians from all sides of parliament accused him of lying over remarks made during talks to form a cabinet.

Rutte faced the biggest challenge to his leadership in a decade as the opposition presented a no-confidence motion, with a vote to directly follow the debate.Rutte was the clear winner of last month’s parliamentary elections, seen as a referendum on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Losing a vote of confidence would force him to tender his resignation to King Willem-Alexander.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#THENETHERLANDS: Right-Wing Party Falls Apart After Pro-Nazi Online Messages

[world politics news] 

Dutch far-right politician Thierry Baudet has resigned as leader of his anti-immigration party after members of its youth wing reportedly shared messages praising the Nazis.

The eurosceptic Forum for Democracy rose rapidly since Baudet founded it in 2016, but it is now falling equally rapidly into disarray over the online chat group messages, which also included anti-Jewish and homophobic statements.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#THENETHERLANDS: Deputy Prime Minister Calls For "New Limits" For Immigration

[world politics news]

The next general election may be over a year away, but the government is starting to posture on what will be a major issue: Immigration. Christian Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Hugo de Jonge said he backed new limits on immigration.

De Jonge said in an interview that the Netherlands needs extra skills and workers, and that it should continue to take in refugees. The Netherlands, he said, does extremely well when it comes to solidarity ‘but, if we want to continue in this way, we have to set limits."

De Jonge declined to give exact figures, preferring instead to talk about ‘targets’. Allowing in 80,000 migrants a year is too many, he said ‘if you calculate how that adds up over time’.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#THENETHERLANDS:Ousted Party Founder Vows To Sue Party Over Financial Accusations

[world politics news]

Forum For Democracy Party founder Henk Otten has accused his former party of making ‘very substantial’ undocumented payments to leading members, in the latest stage of an increasingly bitter fight played out on Twitter. The senator and former party treasurer was thrown out of the party last week for allegedly making unauthorised payments to himself, a former colleague and his lover.

Otten has vowed to sue the party leadership for libel and claims to be the victim of ‘character assassination.’

His war against his former party began after he gave an interview critical of its new leader, accusing him of moving the party too far to the right.

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#THENETHERLANDS: Forum For Democracy Party Seeks Leader After Sidelining Co-Founder

[world politics news]

Forum for Democracy Party co-founder Henk Otten has been removed as the populist party’s prospective leader in the senate following a meeting of all the party’s candidates for the upper house parliament. Otten has been under fire since giving an interview to a newspaper that was highly critical of Forum’s leader Thierry Baudet and the way he was allegedly moving the party to the "far right."

Later the same week, the paper was tipped off with the news that Otten had paid himself €30,000 without the approval of other board members. Otten has since been stripped of his role as treasurer, party worker and board member and being sidelined in the senate was not unexpected.

The senate will be elected by the 570 members of the 12 provincial councils on May 27 and Forum emerged as the big winner in the March provincial vote. This means the party is likely to be the biggest in the 75 seat upper chamber with 13 members

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

[FULL STORY HERE]

World Politics News is dedicated to raising Americans' knowledge of political events, elections, and legislation throughout the world.

#THENETHERLANDS: Foreign Minister Under Fire For Criticism of Multicultural Nation-States; Comments About Singapore, Suriname

[world politics news]

Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok is under fire after making controversial comments about immigrants as well as saying he is unaware of any successful multicultural societies. Cell phone video of the comments, made by Blok at private meeting with Dutch nationals working for international groups, was leaked to the media. "Give me an example of a multi-ethnic or a multi-cultural society, in which the original population still lives," he said. "I don’t know one." When one member of the audience suggested Suriname, Blok described the former Dutch colony as a ‘failed state." Singapore was also discounted by Blok.

[FULL STORY HERE]

#THENETHERLANDS: Foreign Min. Resigns After Lie About Putin Meeting Is Revealed

[world politics news]

The Dutch foreign minister has stepped down after admitting he lied about being in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Halbe Zijlstra announced his decision tearfully in parliament, after MPs had summoned him to explain himself. During his campaign for the March 2017 election, Mr Zijlstra claimed he had personally heard Mr Putin speak of creating a "Greater Russia" in 2006.

[FULL STORY HERE]

#THENETHERLANDS: Dutch Won't Appoint New Ambassador To Turkey, Citing "No Progress" On Diplomatic Rift

[world politics news]

Citing "no progress" on a long-term diplomatic rift, the Dutch government has decided to officially withdraw the Netherlands' Ambassador from Turkey. The Netherlands will not issue permission for a new Turkish ambassador to take up duties in the Netherlands, added the Dutch ministry. The two nations have not exchanged ambassadors since last March, when tensions rose after Turkish government officials were barred from attending rallies in Rotterdam during a Turkish referendum on constitutional amendments to expand the Turkish president's powers.

[FULL STORY HERE]

#THENETHERLANDS: Four-Party Coalition Government Talks Continue

[world politics news]

Talks on forming a new government start up again on Tuesday between Prime Minister Rutte's People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, the Christian Democrats, the progressive D66 Party, and the Green Left Party. Edith Schippers, who is leading the negotiations, said last week the four parties are serious about forming a new alliance, even though they have major differences of opinion on some subjects among these diverse groups. The four are seeking to form a coalition to shut out the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders.

[FULL STORY HERE]

Pictured: The Binnenhof, the Dutch parliament buildings and offices of the Prime Ministe.

#THENETHERLANDS: Geert Wilders' Party Falls Short; Beaten By Pro-EU Prime Minister Rutte

[world politics news]

Dutch anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders' party fell short of expectations Wednesday, beaten by pro-EU Prime Minister Mark Rutte. While Wilders' Party for Freedom gained four seats over their 2012 results, it was not enough, and while Rutte's Freedom and Democracy Party lost 25% of their pre-election seats in parliament, the 31 they kept are enough, with allied parties, to stay in power. The two main pro-EU parties, D66 and GreenLeft, gained 7 seats and 12 seats respectively.

[FULL STORY HERE]

#THENETHERLANDS: Geert Wilders Aims To Upset Dutch And EU Politics In Today's Election

[world politics news]

Up to 13 million people in the Netherlands are voting in today's Dutch election seen as a face-off between populist Geert Wilders and the current Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Wilders, the leader of the anti-Islamist Party for Freedom, is taking on Rutte in the knife-edge election race. Dutch media were touting new polls that showed Wilders' party slumping just before the election, but as we've seen in the US election last November, polling can sometimes get it wrong, and Wilders has led in the polls for months.

[FULL STORY HERE]

#THENETHERLANDS: Now Turkey's Erdogan Calls Dutch "Fascists" After For. Min. Refused Entry

[world politics news]

The diplomatic incidents between Turkey's president and fellow NATO nations continue after Turkish president Erdogan called the Dutch "Fascists" for refusing to land a plane containing Turkey's foreign minister. The Dutch government said in a statement it had withdrawn the permission because of "risks to public order and security" caused by the proposed visit of Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to Rotterdam, where he was to attend an ex-pat rally in favor of Turkey's constitutional reforms. Erdogan recently called Germany "Nazis" for banning rallies there.

[FULL STORY HERE]

#THENETHERLANDS: Leading Anti-Islam Pol. Convicted of "Inciting Hatred" Against Moroccans

[world politics news]

Geert Wilders, whose party is leading in the polls to be the next government of the Netherlands, has been convicted by a 3-judge panel of inciting hatred against Moroccans by leading a chant against that nation's immigrants. Wilders denounced the ruling as a blow against free speech, but the court imposed no penalties and he is unlikely to face any at the polls, either. In fact, the controversial mass immigration of Muslims will likely continue to fuel his party's rise.

[FULL STORY HERE]

#THENETHERLANDS: Lower House Of Parliament Bans Face Veil For Muslim Women

[world politics news]

The Dutch parliament has overwhelmingly voted to ban face veils in some public places, a law the government said was essential for security, but which opponents said pandered to anti-Muslim sentiment. The law, passed by the lower house but still requiring the senate's approval, bans veils and other items that hide the face such as ski masks and helmets in places including government buildings, public transport, schools and hospitals.

[FULL STORY HERE AND HERE]

#THENETHERLANDS: Labour Party Minister Attacks Coalition Partner's Election Platform

[world politics news]

A senior Labour Party minister has attacked the election platform published by its coalition partner party, the Dutch Party of Freedom and Democracy. Social Affairs Minister Lodewijk Asscher, who has yet to announce whether or not he will challenge Diederik Samsom for the party leadership, described social welfare cuts in the manifesto as "bizarre" and "disastrous."


[FULL STORY HERE]

#THENETHERLANDS: Justice Min. Says Report Touting Benefits Of Legalizing Pot Will Have "No Impact" On Gov't Policy

[world politics news]

A report by Radboud University researchers which says legalizing cannabis production would have benefits for public health and human rights will not have an impact on government policy, Justice Minister Ard van der Steur has told parliament. The report's findings are no reason to change policy on cannabis cafes, known as coffee shops, the minister said in answer to questions from the Socialists and The D66 Party. The study found that illegal cannabis production was linked to criminal violence, fires, environmental and noise pollution and the spread of legionella bacteria, the Volkskrant reported last month.

#THENETHERLANDS: Voters Reject EU-Ukraine Trade Deal In Referendum; "Continental Crisis" Feared

[world politics news]

Voters Wednesday rejected a European Union trade deal with Ukraine, with many citing the Eastern European nation's corruption as the reason. The vote, which barely met the criteria of 30% of registered voters - a rare low turnout in Europe - was the first under a new law requiring parliament to reconsider any vote if 300,000 voters sign a petition ordering a popular referendum. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had warned that a Dutch No vote could lead to a “continental crisis." The deal could mean trouble for Ukrainian Pres. Petro Poroschenko and is a victory for Euro-skeptics.