Dividing the Spoils

The graph below charts the fortunes of the various Dutch political parties as polled over the course of the past year:


Our Flemish correspondent VH offers this analysis of political trends before, during, and after the June 9 elections, in which Geert Wilders’ party (the PVV) won 24 seats in Parliament:

The poll graph shows the gravity of demonization, and also the drumming into the electorate that the PVV is not able to govern, and nobody wants the PVV to govern, anyway: thus a lost vote. You can see the effect of the last few months of propaganda against the PVV, with its drop in popularity, and then a last-minute surge. Now all three top parties are effectively at the same level.

There may have been an additional factor causing some people to cast a strategic vote for the closest alternative, presented as such by the MSM, the VVD (center-right). Doing so would prevent the PvdA (the Socialists) from becoming the biggest party.

Another interesting development is that the CDA (Christian Democrats) lost heavily to the PVV: the right wing CDA voters moved to the PVV. When the left wing of the CDA refused to talk with the PVV — and thereby made a PVV-VVD-CDA right-wing cabinet impossible — the more right-wing of the CDA electorate might have moved to the PVV, and left the CDA. The latter party risks becoming a backbench party, hijacked by its low-brow self-righteous left-wing appeasers and traitors.

But, rather than have this happen, I think the old political elite hopes to crush the PVV before the next election, and then the status quo can be restored — as they successfully did with the LPF, the party of Pim Fortuyn: It took them only three cabinets and four years to root out the LPF and regain control.

VH has translated an article from the Leefbaar Rotterdam website about the post-election maneuvering in the Netherlands:
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Talking with the PVV was only to put on a show

by Ronald Buijt [of Leefbaar Rotterdam, “Livable Rotterdam”, Pim Fortuyn’s party]

To tame the “populist voting-fodder” as they view it, the old parties pretended to enter serious talks with the PVV [to investigate the possibility for a coalition government with the VVD (center-right liberals) and possibly the CDA (Christian Democrats, which houses a right wing and a left wing, the latter fiercely opposed to co-operation with he PVV)]. Since almost all parties had already had ruled out the PVV in advance, there was only one possible coalition left with the Party for Freedom: CDA-VVD-PVV. Now that CDA refuses even to consider whether this coalition might be possible, there will be no center-right government. But comfort yourself: even if the CDA had been willing to sit at the negotiating table, such a government would never been formed.

For decades the established parties in the Netherlands divided the power among themselves, including the many affiliated (well-paid) jobs. The PvdA, CDA and VVD have managed to rule repeatedly in different configurations for 40 of the years since WWII. Sometimes D66 [center-left liberals] was allowed to join. Until the 1990s, the PvdA and CDA always scored between 45 and 60 seats out of 150 in Parliament, and the VVD usually between 30 and 40 seats.

PvdA, CDA and VVD dominated this country until they were deep into its nervous system. As stated above, there are always two or three of these parties in the government. They ensure that their party members become the Queens’ Governor of a province [the Netherlands consists of 12 provinces] and over 90% of the mayors of the Netherlands [all appointed by he Queen] are members of these parties. In all the institutions of importance there are people with a direct connection to these three parties: trade unions, employers’ organizations, the Council of State, the heads of the ministries, school boards, Water Authority, the Dutch Bank. But also with civil society organizations there is this link, in particular to the PvdA [Labour Party, Socialists], which is the rule rather than the exception. The commissioners [ministers of a province] are almost always of these parties, and in the towns and villages the vast majority of the council members are in the CDA, VVD and PvdA.

Therefore an incestuous administrative elite slowly arose in the Netherlands which completely lost all links with common citizens. They cared for each other perfectly well, and arranged unprecedented redundancy schemes [the continuation of salaries when becoming unemployed, due to elections for instance]. In the Netherlands, failed politicians who are voted out of office receive very large fees that the ordinary Dutch person may only dream of, and they introduced salaries in the (semi-) government sector that are no longer proportionate in comparison to the real world.

This elite has always been legitimized by a large part of the Dutch media. In fact, many journalists became part of the elite and have their focus on the one square kilometer of the Parliament buildings [Binnenhof], lacking any notion of what was actually going on in the Netherlands. In 2001/2002, the rise of Pim Fortuyn was thus to all these people not only a complete shock but also a complete surprise.

This elite refuses to even give in an inch to the strong feelings of dissatisfaction among a group of voters that is much larger than the 1.5 million people who actually voted for the PVV. The Netherlands is a country of consensus among the VVD, CDA, PvdA, and the old media. They share the pie among them and anyone who might threaten the status quo will be dealt with ruthlessly, using arguments of opportunity.

To begin with, they try to treat the intruder with disregard by pointing at the tone in which an issue is brought up. This is a proven strategy to avoid the content of problematic issues raised. Over 100,000 times they have collectively written about, and referred to, the head-rag-tax, and at the same time avoided addressing the Islamization of our cities. When the scorning of a person based on his tone is not successful, one switches to the mention of “populism”.

And in this way one slides down. Bringing up the War [WWII] and its NSB [National Socialist Movement] have been tried and tested recipes, and even the hiding place of Anne Frank is easily thrown into the battle to silence [“kaltstellen”] the intruder. Everything for the plush!

At first Fortuyn and later Wilders only became stronger and more popular due to this. While one could say that with Fortuyn the elite was completely caught, with the advent of Wilders such is not the question anymore. Here the elite is knowingly and willingly about the defense of its own power.

This elite of VVD, CDA and PvdA has for 60 years blocked all kinds of administrative reforms, out of fear of the citizens and of losing their own power and well-paid jobs. It is they who determine which one of their party fellows becomes a mayor or the Queen’s Governor. They determine themselves who becomes our Prime Minister. And when in a rare exception they allow a referendum on Europe, and no less than 64% of the voting-fodder votes against Europe, well then their response is that they failed to properly explain it to the citizens. Anyone who thinks they then will again make an attempt to “explain it well” to the Dutch voters and then again ask for their opinion is wrong. They simply sign the Treaty of Lisbon anyway, which had been voted against massively.

As I mentioned before in a previous article: “The Big Three of the past will anxiously hold each other’s hands and form a coalition government together. Like frightened rabbits they will once again stare into the headlights of Wilders and the dissatisfied electorate. With their outdated view of the Netherlands they will paralyze each other and thus will also keep our country in paralysis. They [for instance] will not do anything to counter the degraded situations in the nursing homes, or to say it in a popular way: for the ones who have built up the Netherlands after WWII, and thus have contributed to our current prosperity.

They will also do nothing about the ever-rising hatred of gays. They will certainly do nothing about the fact that after 70 years Dutch Jews are again not safe in Amsterdam. They will do nothing about the continuing emigration of highly educated natives (often a disguised vote for Wilders!). And they will certainly not do anything to curb the continuing entry of disadvantaged ethnic minorities.

There will be no minimum sentences introduced. Under pressure of all the respect-rascals they will do nothing to the many billions swallowed up in “development aid”. Instead of addressing the lack of safety in the cities and taking on the street-scum, they simply continue wasting billions on projects for the deprived neighborhoods, and cut the budget for the police. Of course they will leave their servants in the Broadcasting Media untouched.

In short: they will simply continue until the PVV and [at the other side] the SP [anti-mass-immigration Socialist Party] have 76 seats together. Nothing will change fundamentally until that happens in the Netherlands.