"AMSTERDAM, July 7 (Reuters) - The Dutch government collapsed on Friday after failing to reach a deal on restricting immigration, which will trigger new elections in the fall.

The crisis was triggered by a push by Prime Minister Mark Rutte's conservative VVD party to limit the flow of asylum seekers to the Netherlands, which two of his four-party government coalition refused to support.

"It's no secret that the coalition partners have differing opinions about immigration policy. Today we unfortunately have to conclude that those differences have become insurmountable. Therefore I will tender the resignation of the entire cabinet to the king," Rutte said in a televised news conference.

Tensions came to a head this week, when Rutte demanded support for a proposal to limit entrance of children of war refugees who are already in the Netherlands and to make families wait at least two years before they can be united.

This latest proposal went too far for the small Christian Union and liberal D66, causing a stalemate.

Rutte's coalition will stay on as a caretaker government until a new administration is formed after new elections, a process which in the fractured Dutch political landscape usually takes months.

News agency ANP, citing the national elections committee, said elections would not be held before mid-November.

A caretaker government cannot decide on new policies, but Rutte said it would not affect the country's support for Ukraine.

The Netherlands already has a one of Europe's toughest immigration policies but under the pressure of right-wing parties, Rutte had for months been trying to seek ways to further reduce the inflow of asylum seekers.

Asylum applications in the Netherlands jumped by a third last year to over 46,000, and the government has projected they could increase to more than 70,000 this year - topping the previous high of 2015.

This will again put a strain on the country's asylum facilities, where for months last year hundreds of refugees at a time were forced to sleep in the rough with little or no access to drinking water, sanitary facilities or health care.

Rutte last year said he felt "ashamed" of the problems, after humanitarian group Medecins sans Frontieres sent in a team to the Netherlands for the first time ever, to assist with migrants' medical needs at the centre for processing asylum requests.

He promised to improve conditions at the facilities, mainly by reducing the number of refugees that reach the Netherlands. But he failed to win the backing of coalition partners who felt his policies went too far.

Rutte, 56, is the longest-serving government leader in Dutch history and the most senior in the EU after Hungary's Viktor Orban. He is expected to lead his VVD party again at the next elections.

Rutte's current coalition, which came to power in January 2022, was his fourth consecutive administration since he became prime minister in October 2010.

Reporting by Bart Meijer, Anthony Deutsch and Stephanie van den Berg Editing by Sandra Maler"

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/dutch-government-resign-over-asylum-policy-anp-2023-07-07/

1 year ago

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And noone likes our prime minister and like so many, i am sooooo happy he is gone (although it's possible he might just rechoose himself as prime minister again) we have no limits on years or times, he could sit there for 50 years.

1 year ago
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Let's face it, unless he decides to quit himself, it's highly likely that he'll be prime minister again after the next elections.

1 year ago
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I know the chance unfortunately is very big, but maybe it depends how big BBB and maybe working with Omzigt will make a change.
Even though Caroline still voted a lot of motions that were bad for the country and she still is CDA by heart, and basically so is Omzigt. So it's basically the same people again but under a different name, but still better then him in my opinion, plus D66 will probably be gone.

1 year ago*
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Glad about what, that this former prime minister did not bow to American Trumpists about scrapping the necessary environmental regulations and not importing failing immigration policies in Europe?

1 year ago
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Sounds like a NL version of Putin

1 year ago*
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It's a very good comparison. Both for sure are narcissists.

Our prime minister also never ever been seen with a woman (some think he might be gay), no kids, so he also just not even knows how a family has to live, how it goes on in the real world. Or the women beforehand will think she already gets screwed over by him beforehand and thus not persue anything with him.

1 year ago
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Woah... That is something. Hope you won't be too affected by it. :/

1 year ago
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After so long with Rutte, which basically broke down the whole country, so many foodbanks since him, over a million people that can't afford their bills anymore, 800.000 kids that can't be afforded breakfast before school:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6QhAZckY8w&ab_channel=DReamOfficialVEVO

1 year ago*
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Well, dang. At least you can (kinda) laugh about it. :')
I don't really want to talk about my location on a public forum, so I'll just say "dang, relatable".

Edit: the MV is hurting my brain. ._. Nice song though!

1 year ago
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While he probably reelects himself again, for now i am happy yeah that it's good news because noone expected they would let themselves fall (there were many times they came close but wanted to stay on "for the sake of the country").
If i could still drink, and had something i would raise a glass.

1 year ago
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I see I see.
"if"
Because of your heart, right? I'll raise a glass (of water) for you.

1 year ago
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Yeah but my heart isn't so bad actually (near heart failure) as i thought, i had my liver doctor last tuesday on the phone and he explained it to me, i don't smoke, bloodpressure is good, not overweight, only need to be careful of salt and now not ever one drop of alcohol anymore.
It was also my cholestrol that was bad and my diabetes, both levels kept raising for some years but they never seemed to find reason to do something about it, took metformin for years (heard someone's wife got permanent stomach damage) then i switched to glicazide and everything dropped, but then when i moved i started drinking again (heavily), so my last test was high again, but i am very convinced if i stop again my next test will be perfect.
I still don't think a small beer or wine or mojito would make the difference as long as things are not excessive, but i just keep that advice of no drop anymore, because in theory i could still live to be a 100 he said.

Cheers.

1 year ago*
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Woah, dang. I see. That's really rough. :/
I would say "good luck", but it's not about luck. There's "ganbare" in Japanese, "bon courage" in French; I think that fits better, but there isn't an English for that. Hang in there, maybe?

1 year ago
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Thanks, well it's not that bad, i have it in my genes that i can easily say no more liquor luckily, others have it way tougher, i been sober twice for a year.
It's just when i drink (be it water, tea or alcohol) i don't really have a stop. I mean i can just as well take 5 cups of coffee and tea on a day.
Big spirits in excessive amounts, i know that's completely wrong, but 1 wine or beer, i don't really see an issue, but my liver doctor does. So i guess i just have to listen, but you know doctors being doctors it's their standard line like don't drink, don't smoke you know, you can't ever argue with them about it.

You can't wake me up for anything, but a mojito would be almost one of those things that you can, the lidl used to sell them for 4 euro a bottle, and i used to get 1 each week, and they had other nice sun rise drinks (they still sell them in belgium and germany for some reason i believe) then only bacardi sold them for 15 euro (which is expensive when you don't have a lot of money).

I went back to drinking because of the move, feeling lonely, almost going to a depression, but it's diminishing, 7 september there is a party here (hope on nice weather) as a joke i gonna buy a shirt/sweater with kiss me, i am single, i am like who knows. :p
Like many people drink or smoke to get some of the edge off (stress) luckily i still get certain medication for it too so i am not completely without anything, but the question is for how long, because they can be a pain and already cut me off cold turkey once 7 months (which was so annoying that also took me back to drinking).

1 year ago*
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Woah... Not really sure what to say. I have a propension of drinking a lot of water/tea at once, too, lol.
Good luck at the party! 👀

Take care of Bowy (she is sooo cute), and take care of yourself. <3

1 year ago
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Well i do have diabetes type 2, but that's under control (normal levels) so yeah weird as i think then it shouldn't happen.

Thank you 👀

I will, now if she would only allow me touch her, pet her and hold her, would come a long way. <3
She sat on my lap again, looking at me so i thought maybe now was the time to pet her but nope, she jumped off, maybe i should just let her on my lap and do nothing until some other day to try it.

You take care of yourself too.

1 year ago
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Oh, I see.

Hope you'll tell us how it went. 👀

Aww, so cute. Take your time, send more pics when you can!

😌

1 year ago
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Yesterday she sat by me for 1 whole hour, even over my arm, she tried to bit me, used her sharp claws on my crotch, same claws tried to climb my bare back.
Now she sits with my again, i think this becomes a morning routine, it's just so darn impossible to type.

View attached image.
1 year ago
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Woudln't it be better to try and make ALL parts of the world better then people won't be trying to flee to the "good ones"? This isn't going to get better, it's only going to get worse. The world is F'd, thanks boomers.

1 year ago
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If you give someone a free house, free furniture, pocket money and not expect to work back, you can bring in your whole family, and you can easily go back to your country for a holiday (because it was oh so unsafe..) that's our country, i can't speak for others.
Rules state you should find refuge to your nearest border, but many cross over 7 borders just to reach our country, hence why this is such a big issue here.
But if you get that offcourse everyone gets words of it and they tell all their friends what a walhalla it is here, instead of just demanding that you will work here or do something, but most of all don't perform criminal activities and be grateful.

How would you make afrika f.e better? We have had those commercials for 50 years, to donate and most is known to have fallen in corrupt hands, and now they even say climate change will make it hard for them to live there because crops won't grow, there won't be enough water, it gets too hot.

I agree though the world is fucked, we need to change to some star trek monetary system, and not some digital only one that they are planning to do where they just track everything, possibly even control how many times you can go take a trip with an airplane.
And perhaps it's just time for all countries to completely remove everyone's debts, we know they only keep rising and never will get paid back, but maybe that's just a simple thought.

1 year ago*
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🌌🛸🛸🛸🛸🛸🌕🎋🔭📡       🌏

ヾノ'Θ'o)<It is possible that they are live-watching humanity via illegal extraterrestrial distribution, but since it is a gray area (claimed to be observation for research purposes), I wouldn't touch it until we get warp technology, at the very least.

The issue of redistribution in a monetary economy.

If one is aware of the tulip bubble, it is not so unnatural to see money games such as securities, stocks, and FX as money collection systems, exploitation mechanisms for labor, and the 2023 version of slave exploitation by national governments.

 However, if all of a sudden those things switch, I think we may be in for a hard landing and enjoy the Fallout era with nukes flying all over the place.
 From day to day, "bartering" and the cost of transportation (which is still expensive on Earth) have long been a major, unnoticeable exploit.
 Nowadays, some people have recognized this with the gasoline crisis for truckers in the UK and similar events on the East Coast of the US....
 Barter also requires "someone to act as an intermediary. In a sense, those who are called "tax cheats" are also "intermediaries.
 It is not likely that everything will suddenly disappear, and the era of mass-producing and shooting zap guns by individuals has not arrived, as was the case when 3D printers were first developed.
 Oh, there was an exception. Last year, Prime Minister Abe was shot today.
Since that time, there seems to have been a strong atmosphere on the Internet, with groups far removed from information control and privacy protection gaining power.

What I am personally concerned about these days is when I search for the name of the latest social networking service.
 What I asked Google Trends is that it answered that the most popular is Syria.
 Well, there is no reason why they are distributing from a refugee camp. (It's the other services that make the money.)
We live in a time when things that "don't make sense" are more visible than before if humanity pays attention.
 However, I feel that I can say with certainty that when the dissemination of information is impeded, and when more and more people are calling out false information, and when fact-checking is not available, people's lives will become more difficult.

I digress. How can people live locally without ruining their livelihoods?
 If you ask that question, it is important to guarantee food, clothing, shelter, and a communication environment, but young people can adapt and improve things through self-learning.
 However, the older people are, the more likely they are to act based on the perception that "it is natural to take for granted as much as they can get" rather than on knowledge to make things right.
 There are smart unemployed people in every developed country in the world. When they are given "foreign language skills," they could work in such countries in large numbers to make things better and deter the behavior of the "old" people.
 The reality is that there are surprisingly few people who have the ability to learn many languages.
 However, there is room for tomorrow to be better than today on a planet where the development of AI has begun to accelerate.

For now, it seems that we can only hope for that and continue to work on getting minor problems handled faster.

There are of course people who, by all means, do not want to return to their hometowns...🙄 I guess it is inevitable that some people will be traumatized.
 With the current trend, refugees to the developed world will soon be a hell of a lot better than staying in their hometowns.
 Somehow, though.

 There are a certain number of people in every country who are moved by the perception that the food, clothing, shelter, culture, and security they have built over the years have been destroyed by people from foreign countries.
 Corruption" seems to be a major reason why people do not return to their home countries.

 If the time comes when there will be people with "GoPro" on their heads and "Internet Empire App" (Norton II) installed on their "smart phones", depositing all their money into the empire, registering their property and claiming that the opinions of the people in the app are the absolute justice, and not paying taxes to the existing countries... I would not be surprised.

I'm a bit curious to see what will come, since reality usually goes beyond such fictions.

Times when things move so fast are unsettling, but in any case, there is room for tomorrow to be better than today.

I hope things get better. I really do.

1 year ago
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Oh I'm not saying we can. The world is run by greedy rich assholes. You can't even trust those "charites" anymore, they pay their employees through the donations and some even worse! The world is F'd. The only thing I feel we can do is go back to a non-money society. Where everyone has to do a set job for a certain amount of time and everyone gets food, housing, etc as part of their "contribution". It's the only way.

1 year ago
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I think you just described the original idea behind communism there, not much of a new concept.

1 year ago
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Maybe but Communism was never actually that. Just more BS that greedy rich A-holes use to stay in charge.

1 year ago
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Well no, the communism we got (as in humanity, I never lived under communism) in real life was just dictatorship with a different coat of paint. But the originally proposed concept sounded quite nice, that's why people were willing to give it a go.

1 year ago
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Yeah what i like to call the "star trek" model, or a base income (i thought sweden? was talking about that and 1800 euro or something?).
Get the money provided for rent, some food, etc and if you want that fancy car or tv? Work for it. But yeah this way it would still attract immigrants if you aren't forced to work, but that's also how your own government controls it, we say, come on in, come on in up till 75000, we don't even know where to place them all, so they force city mayors. While Denmark says 5000 and not more. they can also stand more firm.

Actually Star Trek "predicted" a lot of things https://qz.com/766831/star-trek-real-life-technology
So here is to hoping we get the sense we change our monetary system too, however i am afraid there are too many people/companies behind the scenes pulling the strings.
Not to mention all those charitities their CEO's get over 100.000 euro, some even double.

Like big or even small companies, in the 80-90's you had inflation but after it prices always dropped, now companies never do that anymore. Out of greed because they think hey more profit. For one bag of groceries we easily pay 40-50 euro.
But i went to the hair dresser yesterday, like 1 1/2-2 years ago they were 16 euro, then i went to another to try out, but a bit expensive so i thought lets go back to the cheap one.
Also you could usually skip the hair washing / blowdrying to save some money, but not now, and it costed me 25 euro.
Luckily i am a guy that only goes twice a year, but many women go every so few weeks..

1 year ago
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It's coming. UBI and UBS are the only real answer to mass automation and the integration of AI. Well, either that or ghettoising half the country and leaving them to die. Shit, Lugum was right, Star Trek predicted that too.

1 year ago
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I'm a bit out of the loop, but why are so many people applying for refuge in the Netherlands? Supposedly most of the people applying are from Syria, but there's a lot of countries between Syria and the Netherlands that they could apply to instead?

1 year ago
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Because here they get free housing (while there is a big crisis for the "normal" dutch, in which many at 30+ still have to live with their parents as the refugees go first, unless they can't then they will live in campers or even on the streets).
They get money to completely decorate their house, they get wellfare and they aren't pressured to work (and most never will) and they can bring in their 7 children. And most will go back to their unsafe country on their holidays.
True, the rule is seek refuge in your nearest country, but they will cross 7 borders to come here, because they know it's a walhalla.

In Dubai there are very big tent camps, especially build for refugees, but they don't get that all there so why they keep staying empty.

1 year ago*
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Oh, that makes sense.
Personally I'm of the opinion that governments should always strive to help their own existing citizens/tax-payers before people from other countries, but that seems to be a somewhat controversial opinion these days.
I'm in the USA, and we have a lot of people with strong opinions about the subject of immigration. Personally I don't see a problem with letting people come in so long as they aren't known criminals, have no deadly transmissible diseases, can speak+read+write at least one language commonly used in the country, and can offer something to that country (knowledge, skills, etc.) that would allow them to easily support themselves.

1 year ago*
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The requirements you're listing there fit regarding immigration, but asylum seeking is different. While a nation is looking for immigration because of requiring specialists or more young people in general because of demographic development, asylum is for refugees. You can't pick from refugees (at least from a humanistic viewpoint). The reasons are war or persecution, their educational level, age, sex, religion don't matter. However, the asylum should be temporary, but that also requires positive changes in their origin country. Yet that's not happening in these countries.
That refugees are being distributed within the EU is to help those countries at the borders. Turkey, Greece and Italy can't maintain all of them.
And regarding refugees who might dramatize the situation in their home country to get to live in a first world country: while it might not be honest, we as first world built our wealth on resources from there and are still using them for cheap labour.

1 year ago
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You're right, with asylum seekers things get a lot trickier. Morally it's only right to try and help everyone you can, but financially you need to be aware of what you can reasonably do. If a country has virtually no starvation among its citizens then it's safe to say that the country can afford more people up to a point, but the more the countries wealth is spread over a non-productive populace (assuming the refugees are not working) the more quality of life among average citizens will suffer. So the question becomes; How big of an influx of refugees can the financial system handle before it noticeably affects the general citizens, and once it does affect them how much will they be willing to give up before it causes mass strife?
Putting aside the financial ramifications of such things, introducing a large influx of people from a different culture can also induce strife amongst the populace all by itself. Segregation of refugees is one potential solution, but it's often considered inhumane to build cheap refugee camps and such.
So yea, it gets a lot more complex with refugees.

1 year ago*
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https://www.metronieuws.nl/in-het-nieuws/2016/01/geen-vluchtelingen-in-luxe-tenten-saoedi-arabie/

It's dutch, but they build plenty of tents and there is enough room, but refugees don't want to go there because it's not luxurious enough nor do they get all the free stuff they get elsewhere. It's also much closer to where they are coming from and their own culture (Syria).
And needless to say it's a very rich country that could actually help them more then little ones in europe, there is no excuse not to use it.

in 1995 we had a song 15 million people, now we have 18 million, but 1 million dutch people left, so that means we got 4 million immigrants (aside from the ones like turkish people we took on in the past to work for us).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wftARWunM2I&ab_channel=xdrmusicvidz

There are plenty of alternatives, but they just don't want it.

1 year ago*
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I can't speak regarding The Netherlands, but here in Germany new asylum seekers aren't even allowed to work right away. They have to be here for a while, get a slightly better residence status and then a working allowance. Of course there are black sheep just hoping for a welfare state, but there are idiots in every group. However, if they stay for longer they should be integrated, into work and into a mixed neighbourhood, not a modern ghetto.. but yeah, it's complicated.
Then again we're good to have them, because which German would like to work as garbage (wo)man, cab driver, delivery boy/girl..

1 year ago
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Personally I'm of the opinion that governments should always strive to help their own existing citizens/tax-payers before people from other countries, but that seems to be a somewhat controversial opinion these days.

It's controversial cause it's a political choice. We've gone so insanely down the Reaganomics/Thatcherite free market road even stuff like water provision, where there is no possible basis for market competition, have been given to the private sector to run for profit. In a world where the government was the largest landlord and covered the basic, absolutely essential services there'd be so many fewer of 'their own' desperate for help and it'd be signifcantly cheaper to help and house immigrants.

The frustration - the controversy as you say - comes the fact that the solutions are not only out there but relatively straightforward. We're just a little too busy atm pretending billionaires can save the world for us to do anything about it.

1 year ago
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Almost same in Canada

1 year ago
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Remember the time when steamgifts.com was just a normal gaming site?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

1 year ago
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Steamgifts was never normal, there were always crazy people.

1 year ago
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I always get confused by the systems where the government can just break before the term is up, and that is the intended way it's supposed to work. What I can say is that having no limit whatsoever as to how long can someone stay in power is a very bad idea regardless of the country, I'm actually convinced that more than one term in a position is risky as politicians always seem to find loopholes to hop around government positions for decades. It's like that joke where they fall in love with their chair and refuse to leave it, over time becoming a feature of the room that you simply cannot get rid of.

1 year ago
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It's basically a dictatorship.

1 year ago
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i love the dynamics of modern colonization. current wars shows that belligerent behavior takes too much time and resouces (except if you need to fabricate a reason). take advantage of the lenience of the target seems to be way cheaper and much more effective.

1 year ago*
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Dreadful little man, lucky to live in a time where Orban and Erdogan make him look reasonable, Britain makes him look economically competent and Putin, well, yeah Putin makes everyone look good. Hopefully the Dutch do themselves and the world a favour by sending him back into obscurity.

1 year ago
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We are either very forgetful or the system is majorly rigged, because as a prime minister only about 10% likes him, 80% is glad that they have fallen, but his party always somehow still becomes 1 or 2 every single time again.
I must say we don't have many viable alternatives, on the left they are extreme, and you got some on the right they find extreme (and no other party already wants to work with), and then 2 small religious ones.

We now however have a new party, but i am not sure what to think about that woman, because she came from an old party, with practially the same ideas, in motions she voted alot against while in favor of the country she should have voted for.

Also we choose a party, not the prime minister, they do that themselves, so if we vote that party, he could reelect himself again, which is most likely to happen again unless that other new party becomes bigger.

1 year ago
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Only one choice I see. You gotta step up :)

1 year ago
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You mean protesting like in other countries? We either have become numb after 13 years of Rutte or too lazy, we do complain a lot on twitter, i really wish we would be demonstrating enmass like other countries, i wish.

But those that do protest (small minorities) like those people in the yellow jackets, or extinction rebellion (leftish group) they are all portrayed as crazies, i think people might be afraid they will be portrayed as it too.
And then there are farmers that just burn bails of hay on the road, and block the roads, which won't give them a positive attitude (but they are all being killed off so many do understand their frustration, same as in Canada, they want to kill off all farmers.
Not too mention our police would easily beat you down, even if you are old, it became a police state.

The last time we had a normal massive and collective protest was against nuclear weapons in the 80's.

Or my own party? Many are lobbied, you won't get a chance to grow without much money, this BBB only got so big because it's a farmers party and they got them sticking with her.
If i would win lets say 20-25 million, i would definitely start my own party, have millions of masks like those in V for Vendetta to spread around that we aren't taking it anymore, you can say he is a terrorist, but had the best intentions for the people. https://youtu.be/966KYvfatC8?t=133 I might also name the party just V, because in dutch it's the beginning letter of so much (peace, freedom, progress and much more). But that's just a dream, and if the whole system is rigged, then you might not even make a dent still.

The thing is (same as in america) it's democrat or republican (basically left vs right) there is always 1 half that doesn't like when the other has won, while we have 20 parties, it also basically comes down to left or right.
I firmly believe there has to be middle/center parties, we don't even have 1.

1 year ago
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