The good:
With 88 per cent of the votes counted, published partial results showed the Liberals with 31 and Labour on 30.How is this coming from a politician?
But the real victory went to Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV), which demands an end to immigration from Muslim countries and a ban on new mosques. The PVV took its number of seats from nine in the last parliament to 24, and could hope to enter a coalition government.
The far-right leader with his distinctive shock of fair hair called the result "magnificent".Remember - this election took place because of AFG.
"The impossible has happened," he told a televised party gathering. "We are the biggest winner today. The Netherlands chose more security, less crime, less immigration and less Islam."
Here is the bad,
After the Christian Democrats plummeted to a historic low, outgoing leader Jan Peter Balkenende resigned his position as party leader and said he was quitting politics - though he also said he would stay on as caretaker prime minister until a new coalition was formed.Dutch out the door; Canadians next year. Together, that is a brigade worth of relatively caveat free maneuver forces heading for the door.
The party won 21 seats, 20 fewer than at the last election in 2006.
Mr Balkenende described his party's crushing election defeat as "disappointing".
"The outcome is clear. I've told the president of our party that I will be resigning as party leader and that I won't be serving as a member of parliament," he said.
The election - the fourth since 2002 - was called after the centrist coalition government, between the Christian Democrats and the Labour Party, collapsed in February.
The government fell when Labour withdrew from the coalition after refusing to extend the Dutch contribution to the Nato force, as outgoing PM Balkenende wanted.
Dutch troops are therefore expected to leave Afghanistan by August.
Ponder.
11 comments:
The Dutch & Canadians have been good friends, and I hope it continues.
It will be interesting to see the reaction(s) of the Islamists in light of Wilders party gains.
I am always fascinated by how they view things. When someone visits an islamic country, they are expected to abide by islamic laws and customs. When a muslim visits a western nation, then they expect you to also abide by islamic laws and customs. See how easy that is? ;)
So the islamification continues at the ballot box...
And of course making it much harder for the British to stay, once the predominately anti-war media get wind of this and find out that most of the non-US 'fighting' forces have left and the weaker mainstream Euro forces (not you Poland!) stay right out of the heavier fighting in the south.
Plus there's already an lets-alienate-the-public-support pincer movement going on with Obama on the other flank bashing all things Brit of late (PM, Queen, self-determination of Falkland islanders, conveniently ignoring that BP is in fact a true multinational coy with almost as many US born members of the board, as UK)
Were there 2 division equivalents of Turkish troops in either spot?
I don't know if NATO knows it or the EU realizes it but the partnership died and they did most of the killing. Most and all of the staffs you suggest we cut can be removed by the reduction of American presence from Europe. They brought us nothing at all and it will cost nothing to slice them off.
I'm going to laugh as America Redux goes on. kind of painfully actually.
Well, I expect US troops starting to evacuate by 2011 (you know election time for Obama etc.), so Dutch and Canadians wont miss much probably. And re Holland inside, I expect steady reduction of Islamist immigration. And Poland probably will stay to the end with US. Social democrats control some 10% of Parliament and arent likely to rise much quickly. BOTH main parties here are right wing by euro standards, with one for example campaigning for total - and I say total - abortion ban , no exception, while other is seen as liberal with allowing abortions in case of rape victims or women whose life is threatened by pregnancy.
It's sad to see them go, but then, like you said, they were not backed up by the rest of the NATO countries.
Also CDR...
... the REAL, DECISIVE fight will be fought here, in Europe, not in places were asinine goat herders who think a toilet is for washing potatoes marry nine year olds.
And another also...
Wilders may have gained strong, but it don't matter. They're going to place a cordon sanitaire around him just like they did with the VB in my country, Belgium.
Which means that the situation is going to rot... and rot... and ROT... further, until the point of no return is reached.
Mike, I can't "like" your statement because there is nothing to like about that grim truth. The question is, when the world reaches the point of no return, where does it go then?
DeltaBravo, the Enlightened Ones who will now put Wilders' PVV in a political quarantine, would do better to implement the measures he proposes. Immediate stop to immigration from muslim countries, merciless expulsion from illegals, putting hate preaching imams on a plane back to the country of origin.
This they will not do.
The net result will be that in, say, fifteen years, the choice will be between either submission or measures that will be FAR MORE draconian than anything Wilders is proposing now.
A saying from a famous British politician comes to mind.
As in America, the scandalous role of the media is greatly contibuting to the stalemate. I cannot blame you for not knowing it, but in the Dutch media Wilders & Co have been demonized in an appalling way. Had they given 'fair and balanced' coverage, his victory might very well have been far bigger.
As it is now, the clear evidence of the situation getting out of hand is not shown on TV... with the result that Dutchmen living outside the hot spots are unaware of it.
You can compare it to the situation in France, where the media do not report on the appalling situation in the ZUS (Zones Urbaines Sensibles = No Go areas).
So Jean Dupont in his rural village in the Dordogne is completely unaware of the fact that for example since 2005, give and take 300,000 cars (three hundred thousand cars) have been set on fire in France by muslim mobs.
I am not kidding. You will in all likelihood say 'he's exaggerating'. Sadly, I am not.
I think it is time to go. When we are having literally no effect it may be time for an exit. If there are any signs of victory, any tangible goals of victory I haven't seen them. There is the most amazing 7 year old girl with the most glorious green eyes there. She will grow up a slave to Islam but then again, she will grow up. Karzai can't enforce the government's writ beyond the suburbs of Kabul. Let these barbarians have back their 8th century paradise. Don't let one single one of them get on a plane here.
No, I've heard of the car burnings and the no-go areas where France has surrendered to the Muslim mobs. I just didn't know the total number of cars was so high.
Actually the Dutch leaving is a good thing-especially if it forces the issue of admitting to ourselves that the Afghan people are not-and never have been-the kind of "seed corn" for a successful nation allied to US interests.
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