After the murder on Theo van Gogh a year ago the Amsterdam Labour Party desperately tried to get as close to the family and friends of Van Gogh in a transparant attempt to gain back the respect that they had lost in the eyes not only of the public. But also in the eyes of people in a wide circle around Van Gogh who knew him well and respected him and who have some power in the media. The attempt failed tragically and backfired on Labour Party and Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen when it became public knowledge that Van Gogh's family refused to invite or admit the socialist Mayor for Van Gogh's funeral. The much reviled hard-line Minister Verdonk of Foreign nationals and Intergration wás invited by the family and was also a personal friend of the filmmaker.
However the Labour Party has tried to turn the tables. Desperate to cling to their electoral power in Amsterdam after having lost their Rotterdam working class voter base they try all the tricks in their books to influence events and to slow down the fact that socialism is just not as attractive anymore as it was in most Western countries.
Although friends and family of Van Gogh did not want a ceremony on the spot in the Linneusstraat where Van Gogh breathed his last breath, a ceremony was organised anyway. Labour needs to show to its friends and supporters that it is still relevant and that it still running its little fiefs.
Townhall organised a ceremony which will be held tomorrow on the murder spot. In Amsterdam Townhall and Labour Party are the same thing, Labour has been running Amsterdam's shady affairs for decades. There will be no friends or family who are having a private affair somewhere else in the city. Our socialist mayor will be there to speak plus some other lesser Labour dignitaries, but no other politicians apart from our Conservative and Clueless Prime Minister who will be there to add some weight to the occasion. Hardliners M.C.F. Verdonk and Ayaan Hirsi Ali have not been invited. They are not from Amsterdam, you see?
Of course when this came out it raised quite a few eyebrows in the press. However Gijs van der Westelaken, a friend an business partner of Van Gogh, has a free pass for the event which he handed to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the hard line opponent of Islam. Once more Labour is made to look foolish.
Source: http://www.elsevier.nl/nieuws/nederland/nieuwsbericht/asp/artnr/70091/
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