Two more weeks

The three week term

The chairman of the negotiations for a cabinet (informateur) of Christian Democrats (CDA), right-liberals (VVD and the populist Freedom Party (PVV will last longer then originally announced. When these negotiations started it was said that an agreement would be reached in about three weeks.

On Friday informateur Opstelten announced that it would take another two weeks more (Dutch). He stated that all matters have been breached by now, but that there still remain many minor points which defy a full concensus.

The 2011 budget

That means that the budget for 2011 which is traditionally presented in early September will be set up by the old government. That is just the Christian Democrats (CDA) and the Christian Union (CU), without the Labour Party (PvdA) who broke the previous government.

Geert Wilders stands up for his people

Geert Wilders defends his voters

As negotiators are working on putting together a new coalition government of CDA, VVD and PVV, more and more formerly prominent politicians are coming out with their opposition against a possible government including the Freedom Party (PVV). These former prominents are all members of the Christian Democrats (CDA). The reasons given for their opposition to a coalition with are that the PVV endangers the Rule of Law and excludes and demonises the Muslim part of Dutch society.

Wilders on Twitter

Wilders reacted yesterday on Twitter by defending his 1.5 million voters and to call for an end to the demonisation against them.

Who and by whom?

It bears pointing out that while the former CDA prominents mourn the possible exclusion of the followers of Islam, they actively seek the exclusion and demonisation of the PVV-voting base. Therefore it is not exclusion and demonisation as such they are against and differ with the PVV. It is who must be excluded and demonised. And it is about by whom there must be demonisation and exclusion that they differ from the PVV. They seek the moral high ground by their complaints about the baseness of demonisation and exclusion. While practising both of these as part of their political art.

The Good Book

And this Sunday's Bible reading is from Matthew 7, verses 1 - 29.

Fretting about the Formation

Formation negotiations

Since the 9 June 2010 elections Dutch politicians have been working on various possible coalitions. A left-wing variant and a centre variant have been tried and since July 31 a right-wing variant is under negotiation. Within a few days the negotiations for the right-wing minority government with the tacit support of the Freedom Party (PVV) will have gone on for a month. With nothing to show for it. Additionally former CDA Prime Minister Lubbers wrote some leaked letter to the secretariat of the party stating his opposition to a coalition with tacit support of the PVV today.

So I am starting to fret.

Minor contentious issues

I was put at ease by an article in the "Het Financieele Dagblad", a financial daily which takes itself somewhat serious. They report that insiders state that the negotiators of the Christian Democrats (CDA), right liberal VVD and the populist Freedom Party (PVV) are close to a settlement. Close means early next week.

The insiders say that major issues have been resolved. Only a minor issue has to be taken care of.

A list of agreed cuts

The article mentions other cuts, which are not problematic. Development aid, defense, cuts in the care for handicapped youngsters, tax cuts, cuts in the number of civil servants and their salaries, cuts in subsidies to public broadcasting and cuts on the Dutch subsidy to the EU have been agreed upon.

The health budget

For the CDA a problematic issue remains the planned cuts on the health budget. So if these insiders are right this is all they have been talking about for the past two days.

I feel much relieved. Nothing to worry about. Everyting is in order.

German top banker aligns himself with Geert Wilders

Emerging opposition

In European countries like Belgium, The Netherlands and Denmark the ruling Multiculturalist ideology is effectively challenged. Vlaams Belang, PVV and DFP are formed as opposition parties who manage to convey the failures of Multiculturalism and the dangers of mass-immigration. In other countries criticism of Multiculturalism is still effectively barred. But even there cracks are appearing. E.g. in Germany a top banker, Thilo Sarrazin, is not mincing his words and attracting a lot of attention. Mr. Sarrazin notably is a member of the Social Democrat party or SPD. He recently wrote a book with the title "Germany is self-destructing"

Germany is self-destructing

Esther's IslaminEurope featured a Der Spiegel article a few days ago. Notable exerpts are:

This week, though, the Social Democrat (SPD) seems to have outdone himself. German media outlets, including SPIEGEL, have published excerpts of his soon-to-be-published book on Germany's supposed demise. As Sarrazin makes abundantly clear, that demise comes as a result of immigration. The bluntness with which he presents his ideas has kicked off a debate in Germany, and within the center-left SPD, as to whether Sarrazin has crossed the line into racism and whether he should be censured. []

If the fertility rate of German autochthons remains at the level it has been at for the past 40 years, then in the course of the next three or four generations, the number of the Germans will sink to 20 million," he writes in the book. "And, incidentally, it is absolutely realistic that the Muslim population, through a combination of a higher birth rate and continuation of immigration, could grow by 2100 to 35 million. []

Through the language used in his polemics, Sarrazin appears to be aiming to push the highly divisive debate over immigration and integration closer to that of right-wing populists elsewhere in Europe, like Geert Wilders in the Netherlands.

A German Fortuyn

The emergence of a respected and high ranking dissident against the Multi-Cultural consensus is disquiting news for the political and media cartels. It is easy to discredit swastika-waving Neo-Nazis. But another thing to defeat the critical analysis of an insider. Sarrazin appears to be a Fortuyn-like figure. Fortuyn was also a former member of the establishment who showed by writing books and columns the inconsistencies of Multicultural ideology. Thus giving words and power to members of the public who had already become disaffected with Multicultural lies. But who felt uncomfortable with the existing rightwing parties, who were seen as connected to the unsavory far right.

The German Christian-Democrats express concern

Last week Franz-Jozef Achterkamp, a German Christian-Democrat, sent an open letter to the Dutch Christian-Democrats urging the latter not to form a government with Geert Wilders. The German Christian Democrats are part of the Multi-Cultural political concern. The rise of the Freedom Party (PVV) in The Netherlands and their possible participation in government adds gravitas to the voices of German critics and dissidents against Multi-Culturalism. Multi-Cultural society in Germany shows the same problems of crime, joblessness and hostility to the native population. Sofar the German media and the political cartel have managed to keep the spirit in the bottle, but there also the pressure on the lid is becoming greater.

International Freedom Alliance

Geert Wilders understands the dynamic and for this reason he launched the International Freedom Alliance, in order to defeat Islam and Multiculturalism in many Western countries apart from The Netherlands. Because this fight is a fight of the whole West, not just The Netherlands.

Potholes on the road to a new government

Trials and tribulations

Dutch politicians of the right-liberals (VVD), Christian-Democrats (CDA) and Freedom Party (PVV) have been on the road to forming a minority cabinet for the fourth week now. And if noises coming from behind the scenes are any indication it is not going well. On a TV news show Knevel en van den Brink the Chairman of the CDA, Mr. Bleker stated that the CDA - VVD coalition has to "bind" or "reconcile" all groups in society. This can be taken as an insistence to continue the policy of mulling over differences between (Muslim) immigrants and ethnic Dutch.

Wilders' reaction

PVV-leader Geert Wilders (Dutch) reacted with a personal attack on Mr. Bleker on Twitter (Dutch). Mr. Bleker is "whinger" according to him. What he means is that the CDA is committing the fault of the Dutch. Which is "to offer too little and to ask too much".

The next steps

The expectation is still that there will be a convenant for government (regeeraccoord) by next week. And if there is a convenant it will be put up for approval by a congress. And the congress is expected to approve the convenant.

The heart of the matter is the nature of Islam

Mr. Bleker and his CDA collegues are pretending that the sole problem could be the inclusiveness or exclusiveness of the ethnic Dutch. They are completely ignoring the point of view of Islam and its adherents. It is Islam which is excluding non-Muslims. It is Islam which states that all societies should be brought under Sharia law. And that all other points of view are wrong. Yes, the PVV policy is one of political exclusion of Islam as a political ideology. This is an essential exclusion if the nature of a Western society is to be maintained. The values of the West and Islam are mutually exclusive.

The use of the CDA

The sooner the membership and leadership of the CDA starts understanding this, the sooner they can do a service to Dutch society. And it is my impression that the rank and file understands this better than the leadership of the Christian-Democrats.

War of Civilisations, conflict of values

At the Wall Street Journal (or Neo-Con Central as I call it in my mind) Ayaan Hirsi Ali has written a well-considered piece. The subject is the irreconcillable gap between Western Civilisation and the other civilisations. Particularly Islam. The piece gives a good introduction to Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilisations" and the consequenses of his thesis.

The greatest advantage of Huntington's civilizational model of international relations is that it reflects the world as it is—not as we wish it to be.

I do hope that insights like these make it into the Western mainstream.

Formation going into heavy seas

Economic issues coming to the fore front

The latest formation attempt of a new Dutch minority coalition of right-liberals (VVD), christian democrats (CDA) with the tacit support of the populist Freedom Party (PVV) is coming to closure. At this point difficult compromises and concession have to be made. An agreement to disagree over the position of Islam was made at the beginning of this formation period and I covered it in "A Minority Government" here. Due to the global economic troubles the VVD wants to cut 18 billion Euros of the state budget. This is proving to be difficult. 

PVV inserting itself BETWEEN CDA and VVD

The right wing notions of the PVV program on Islam, immigration and assimilationare well known. But what is less well appreciated is the leftist slant of a part of the PVV program.

On August the first a commenter R. Hartman remarked: 

There's nothing 'right wing' about the PVV. You might stipulate that the PVV is the least 'left wing', the least socialist party in NL, but it's still socialist. And that's NOT 'right wing', not even 'centric'.

With regards to economic issues Mr. Hartman is right. Although the PVV started out with a hardline free market position, the populists have since adopted an social and economic program to the LEFT of the right-liberal VVD. Notably on the issues of the care to pensioners, the ease with which an employer can fire an employee. As well as the right of the unemployed to receive generous state benefits in the first few months after getting fired, dependeing on how long the fired employee was employed for one employer previous to losing his job.The strategic move that the PVV is making here is recognizing that many voters who are worried about the rise of Islam, rising crime levels and the loss of Dutch and Western values are also concerned about globalisation and the loss of social and economic protection. These voters can be anywhere, both on left but also on the right. The PVV has connected the social and economic concerns of these voters with the expense of non-western immigration as this blog covered in e.g. "The Borjas Question". It has promised voters it would protect them better than the current cartel of parties on all the issues that these voters are concerned about: loss of national identity and rising crime, but also fear of economic replacement by immigrants. 

The right liberal VVD is insisting that many social arrangements have to be scrapped or made less generous in order to cut the budget. But the PVV and the CDA are opposing cuts (Dutch) in pensions, benefits and care for elders.

Culturally to the right

Many commentators are acting surprised that the PVV is creating waves over these issues. This shows that they do not understand what the PVV is about and how their strategists perceive the economic and political landscape. What the PVV is doing makes a lot of sense and is highly coherent. This is another reason why the PVV has a real chance to become to premier right wing party in The Netherlands. It is rightwing on cultural and religious issues. But it highly opportunistic in economic questions, where it may take positions which are associated with the left. Because politics has been about economic issues for 40 years people are looking at politics through a prism of economic theory. This explains that commentators observe the PVV to be coming from the "wrong" direction. 

Make no mistake. This is a big shift and it will not just hit and change The Netherlands, but many if not all Western societies, because all these societies struggle with the problems created by mass-immigration.

No easy compromise

Still, the conclusion must be that Geert Wilders is not easily going to compromise on these matters with the VVD. The formation of a minority cabinet could well fall apart on this issue, because the PVV cannot be seen to compromise to much on these core matters.

Grouping my Formation 2010 articles

I added a new label to cluster my articles on the 2010 formation of a Dutch government for easy access.

The label is Formation2010.

Harbingers of Spring 2

While hammering out a plan

The negotiations to form a new Dutch government are getting ahead. The right-liberal VVD and the Christian Democrats (CDA) are still seeking to form a minority cabinet with the support of Geert Wilder's Freedom Party (PVV). The PVV is sitting at the negotiating table. Although a 78 percent majority of the CDA voters favour a rightwing cabinet with PVV support, such a coalition is more controversial amongst CDA party members. With full media support a anti PVV group managed to gather 1,000 signatures of CDA members who oppose forming a coalition even with mere tacit support from the PVV.

Support for co-operation

On the other hand a quickly raised group favouring a right-wing minority cabinet also managed to get the signatures of 1,000 members of the CDA. This group is represented by a John Kuijt. Mr. Kuijt said he expected his party not to support any changes to the constitution, which is what the PVV wants, notably in the area of hate speech codes.

Standing out

It is quite amazing that 1,000 members of the CDA are going on the record to show their willingness to co-operate with a party that is the biggest enemy of Multiculturalism. That takes some moral courage.

Some animals are more equal than others

750 privately owned houses

This blog featured a post yesterday about the City of Amsterdam which is confiscating the second house of people who have a first house elsewhere. 750 owners are risking de facto confiscation. The confiscated houses have to be rented at controlled nominal rents to people who are deemed needy by the municipal bureaucrats, according to the housing statute of the City of Amsterdam. Labour party (PvdA) politicians are still defending the policy on the thinnest of grounds. Namely that the shortage of houses is "so acute". But no grounds are needed when men are bent on being tyrants. Whim is the heart of tyrranny.

Forced into loss

These house owners have to rent out the houses at rents which do not cover the costs of the mortgage, they are forced into heavy losses. But the municipality does not care about their troubles. It does not feel their pain. 

400 municipality owned houses

How could it know their pain? The municipality does not own houses, does it? However today Dutch daily "De Telegraaf" dug up the fact that the municipality owns about 400 houses in the centre of Amsterdam (Dutch). Two municipality owned firms, NV Zeedijk and NV Stadsherstel, obtained these houses in campaigns to end the large power drugs- and other mafias have in the Amsterdam red light district. By forcing suspect and seedy owners to sell their houses in this district. This by force of another right to property undermining law: BIBOB. But that is another story.

Paying mortgages is a pain

The municipality paid good money to obtain these houses. It had to get mortgages from banks to finance the purchases. And now the municipality has to pay the montly payments on the mortgages. According to the statutes used against the owners of second homes the houses are not used for living by the owner. And they have a value below 163,000 Euro. So they qualify as houses which must be rented out at controlled, nominal rents, according to the Amsterdam housing statute.

Amsterdam and its newest, bestest friends

However the houses are rented out through nearby hotels, Krasnapolsky and Barbizon, at 200 Euros per night. The location of the houses is the best, there will be a lot of demand for these municipality owned houses. The municipality and friends must be making a killing on this deal. The civil servants enforcing the confiscations from the private owners of second homes have been instructed to waive the statute for the municipality owned houses. This was confirmed by former Amsterdam Alderman Hans Gerson in September 2009 on the grounds that otherwise the municipality would own the houses at a loss. That is enough reason when the municipality has to bear it, but not enough reason when prive owners have to bear it.  

See no evil

Oh and if houses are rented out and it does not get into the books? There is no keeping track of the coming and going of tourists and travellers is there? This situation is ideal for the creation of black, undeclared money flows. Who knows who might be on the take?

Some animals are real pigs if you ask me

A Harbinger of Spring

The laywer

Last Friday the 13th a Dutch news and commentary show Knevel en van den Brink featured a well known Dutch criminal laywer Mr. Theo Hiddema. What causes me to mention him was the fact that the laywer is known for some time as a Freedom Party (PVV) supporter and managed to bring the ideas and policies and the reasons for those policies of the PVV to the limelight.

Keeping the right-liberals on track

Amongst other things Mr. Hiddema mentioned that the Dutch courts are flooded with criminals of foreign origin. At some point his interviewers said that Geert Wilders was too radical and that it would be better to vote for the right-liberal VVD, which has a very restrictive immigration paragraph. To which Hiddema replied that the VVD would only be reliable on immigration as long as the PVV was there to compete with them for votes.

A joy to listen to. Unfortunately it is all in Dutch but still here is the video:

The right to property undermined in Amsterdam

No protection for property owners

Within The Netherlands Amsterdam has been infamous for the weak protection of property rights. Bikes and cars be stolen without the police being willing to investigate the matter. I am speaking from experience here. Real estate, such as houses and apartments, is prey to a violent and arrogant squatter movement, who may take over empty buidings counting on the protection and assistance from the city government, and the public utilities for supply of power and water. This has been so since the late 1960ies.

Movements for property rights

Since the Fortuyn populist revolt in 2001 there is a counter-movement, seeking to bring back the protection of property. Fortuyn was bankrolled by big real estate owners, who sought the protection of their property rights and the destruction of the squatter movement. The leadership of rightwing parties in parliament saw in this a part of the agenda of the populist movement that they could implement without touching the multicultural ideology. They were hoping to isolate the populist movement from its financial base and they felt they needed to give something to their respective conservative bases to ease the grass roots pressure on the party leadership. And so the Balkenende cabinet wrote and passed a anti-squatter bill. This bill is going to take effect on 1 October 2010.

The bitter-enders of the left

The left did not give up so easily. Last June the national council of Public Prosecutors announced that they would not enforce the new anti-squatter law (Dutch). Law or no law, Naboth could go to Hell. Minister of Justice Hirsch Ballin insisted that the law would be enforced. Whatever that is worth.

But the left is not finished in its quest to replace the rule of law with the rule of whim of bureaucrats. And the the whim of its favoured violent special interest groups such as squatters, animal rights activists and such 1.). Which in the past furnished them with the assassin of Pim Fortuyn, when they needed one. To show their disdain for property rights the Labour Party (PvdA) dominated City Council is confiscating privately owned apartments (HT KV) whose owners are living in a first home elsewhere. Distributing the apartments to their own needy clients at a nominal controlled rent. A typical apartment with a monthly mortgage payment of 1,000 Euro will be rented out for a maximum rent of 548 Euros. So the owners will not be able to make good their investment. In addition the clients of the City Council may run down or damage the property of the owner, with uncertain recourse for the owner through the overloaded courts.

This is not at all new. In book 6 - Democracies and Oligarchies - of The Politics and The Constitution of Athens 2.) Aristotle remarks on phenomena which tend to bring democracies down:

The demagogues of our own day often get property confiscated in the law-courts in order to please the people.

The Rule of Law is a good thing

Kleinverzet introduces his article by remarking that

all and sundry on the Dutch left are decrying Geert Wilders as a potential threat to Justice and Rule of Law.

In the context of the lack of protection of property rights invoking the Rule of Law by the left is indeed totally unappropriate. The Rule of Law is a convenient stick to batter Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party (PVV). The left has never shown respect for the Rule of Law when it fettered their unrestrained rule.

By contrast, it is the effort of the supporters of the populist PVV and its forerunner, which put the nation back on the track of the rule of law. The efforts to enshrine and protect private property are part of that quest.

1.) This blog featured articles on the collusion between the Dutch establishment and violent radical leftist groups and how this was a fertile breeding ground for the assassin of Pim Fortuyn. E.g. connections to Fortuyn's assassin.

2.) Aristotle's Politics and the Constitution of Athens may be purchased from Amazon here.

Christian democrats dragged along kicking and screaming

No to Wilders

According to Esther at IslaminEurope a group of Christian Democrats (CDA) is opposing the deal with the Anti-Islamic Freedom Party (PVV). As a part of their efforts they are collecting signatures of CDA-members on a website (Dutch).

The big picture

However, a poll taken by Maurice de Hond shows that 78 percent of those who voted CDA support a deal with the PVV. Out of 65,000 members 330 signed the petition of the hardcore multiculturalists. The results become more relevant if we assume that only active members voted for the petition. Active members are 10 percent of party members generally in The Netherlands. 330 out of 6,500 active members is roughly five percent.

The rotten party system

Before this blog featured a post on our rotten party system in The Netherlands. Members are active in parties because they want jobs in the party or in the administration. There are 12,000 political offices in the administration and 15,000 paid party slots to divvy up between the active party members of whom there are in total about 300,000. Ten percent or 30,000 of them are active members so there is a job for nearly everyone. But the only way for a party to be able to reward its active core with an paid appointment is by being part of a government. So the CDA has little choice, now that there is a possibility of a rightwing government. They have to be in this government, or the main reason why they are able to recruit members wil fall away.

Doomed anyway

The hardcore multiculturalist five percent may kick and scream but most of them will go along. That is until the CDA has been made irrelevant by the Scylla of secularisation and the Charybdis of the rise of the PVV.

Populist Crossfertilization

Esther's IslaminEurope featured an article on the Danish People's Party (DPP) which proposed that a parlimentary commission will annually calculate the costs of immigration of non-western immigrants into Denmark. In July 2009 I wrote that Freedom Party (PVV) MP Sietse Fritsma:

has been asking Dutch government ministries what their immigrant related costs are and how they relate to the costs of native Dutchmen. He has also asked questions about the revenue of the state related to immigrants. He has forecast the result that immigrants ON AVERAGE cost more than they bring in.

Here we see the fruits of co-operation between rightwing populists in Europe, just as we may see it with the rightwing minority government which is being formed after the Danish example in the Netherlands.

Dechristianizing the Christian Party

Multiculturalism does not sell well

In an article on this blog last week I stated that the:

.. PVV .. is becoming the premier rightwing party.

At this point in time one of the rightwing electoral rivals of the Freedom Party (PVV), the Christian Democrats (CDA) are reconsidering their strategy recommendation with a view to winning back a voting base that will ensure their power. The problem for the Christian Democrats is that they received 21 seats in the 150 parliament in the latest election, while they are used to receiving a bit less than a third of the votes, with around 45 seats. The voting base of the Christian Democrats has been diminishing since the 1960ies, due to secularisation. And this is made more acute by the appearing of a rightwing competitior, the PVV in a time of doubts over the viability of the multicultural society that has beeen foisted on the unexpecting electorate by the political elite.

Inclusiveness is the answer

The answer according to CDA prominent Mr. Bert Ramakers is to broaden their ideological foundation. That means stopping to be a typical Christian-Democratic party (Dutch) and to appeal to adherents of other religions, primerily Muslims. It is not surprising that Mr. Ramakers takes this view. Inclusiveness is the only option permitted in the multicultural society. And on a first glance it makes sense too. Immigrants are a growing portion of the population, so if the Christian-Democrats appeal to this base they can win votes there.

The fruits of inclusiveness

However, the question is, is it really all that easy. Labour (PvdA) has appealled succesfully to immigrant voters for a long time. They have a headstart on the Christian Democrats. And attracting immigrants is a mixed blessing. The PvdA is shedding ethnic Dutch voters faster than they can win immigrants. The voter base of the CDA is more averse to a pro-muslim program than the Labour base and they will desert the party to rally to the PVV. So the Christian Democrats are damned if the do and damned if they don't.

The Rest

And this is half of the reason why the PVV has the potential to become the premier rightwing party in The Netherlands. The other half concerns the other rightwing competitior of the PVV, the right-liberal VVD.