Yearbook 2019
Netherlands. According to
CountryAAH, the election to the European Parliament was
a surprise. The Social Democratic Labor Party (PvdA)
unexpectedly became the largest party with 19% of the vote
(6 seats). One explanation for the upswing may be that
Social Democrat Frans Timmermans was running for office as
the new EU Commission President. The ruling People's Party
for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) got 14.6% (4 seats),
Christian Democratic appeal (CDA) 12.1% (4 seats),
right-wing populist Forum for Democracy (FVD) ended up at
11% (3 seats), Green left (GL) 10.9% (3 seats), left liberal
D66 7.1% (2 seats), Christian right-wing CU-SGP 6.8% (2
seats), Animal Party (PvdD) 4% (1 seats) and the retirement
party 50+ 3.9% (1 mandate).
The fact that the anti-immigrant anti-immigrant FVD did
not achieve such great success in the EU elections was
surprising, as it had been good for the party at the
provincial elections in March. As a result, the indirect
election to the Senate also went well a few days after the
election to the European Parliament. Namely, it is the
councils of the provinces that elect the 75 members of the
Senate. The FVD, led by 36-year-old Thierry Baudet, went
strong here and became as large as the reigning VVD, and
both were given 12 seats each. The VVD's coalition partner
CDA got 9 seats, D66 got 7 seats and CU 4 seats. The
election meant that the government lost the majority in the
Senate - but left it with a marginal margin in Parliament.
Three people were killed and nine injured (one of whom
later died) at a shooting on a tram in Utrecht on March 18.
The suspected perpetrator, 37-year-old Turkish citizen
Gökmen Tanis, was arrested after the act, suspected of
terrorism, possibly with family connection to one of the
victims. According to the prosecutor, he was radicalized.
In May, Dutch singer Duncan Laurence won the Eurovision
Song Contest in Israel with the song "Arcade". The last
thing that happened was 1975, when Sweden was the host
country. The song was then called "Ding Dinge-Dong" and
performed by the Dutch group Teach-In.
In June, the Dutch railway company Nederlandse Spoorwegen
(NS) announced that it has allocated tens of millions of
euros for compensation to victims of the Holocaust and their
relatives. During World War II, NS earned large sums on the
transport of 107,000 Dutch Jews to the Nazi camps. In 2001
they apologized, but it is only now that they have decided
to pay compensation. Of the 5,000 who survived the death
camps, only 500 are alive, and these will receive € 15,000
each; relatives will receive between € 5,000 and € 7,000.
The responsibility of the Netherlands at the Srebrenica
massacre in Bosnia in 1995 reached the Supreme Court during
the year, which in July ruled the Dutch responsibility. This
was part of the massacre where 350 Muslim men and boys had
sought protection from the Dutch peacekeeping UN troops. The
Muslim men and boys were killed after being handed over to
Bosnian-Serbian troops. The Court now goes along the same
lines as lower courts, which in 2017 ruled that the
Netherlands was partly responsible for this part of the
massacre.
In August, a canning ban came into force. In the summer
of 2018, Parliament's first chamber voted for a ban on
wearing face-covering veils, such as burka, in public
buildings in the country, that is, in schools, hospitals and
government buildings, and for drivers in public transport.
However, the ban does not apply to streets and squares. A
fine (150–450 euros) for the person who carries the can only
be paid if a police call is not obeyed. The Netherlands is
the sixth country in the EU that has introduced some kind of
bans.
Amsterdam's joy district should be cleaned up, thinks the
city's first female mayor Femke Halsema. Among other things,
she wants to close some of the shop windows and get the
prostitutes to move. But the sex workers don't want that.
Felicia Anna, board member of the Red Light United trade
union, says: "I have one thing to say to all those who think
we are vulnerable, they don't know us at all."
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