A bit of politics in the Netherlands

[whatagain]

I must confess that like a lot of Belgians, i don't know much about the politics in NL.
We seem concerned a lot by french politics, a bit about UK, a little less about Germany, a little bit about Poland and Hungary, some for italy for the fun and we don't care about Spain, Portugal and the rest.

So i was interested to learn that the NL government collapsed on immigration issues. It seems there are not enough asylum centers and the solution was to limit ths number of immigrants. The last straw being a motion about forbidding the children of asylum seekers already in NL to get entrance. They would have to wait 2 years before being reunited. 2 of the 4 parties in the government voted against this motion causing the collapse.

Nl is known - from our view - to be quite far to the right on too many issues and having had prominent figures from far right (wasn't one top such guy assassinated recently ?)

So they will vote in november. Will populist parties win their votes ?

[kerouac2]

I admit that I was surprised by the resignation of Mark Rutte, and I was also surprised to learn that he was the longest serving prime minister in history. (not very long!)

As whatagain says, it's true that a lot of the politics of the Netherlands is very right wing, yet in the English speaking world it is seen as one of the most progressive (and therefore leftist) countries in the world -- drug legislation, first country in the world to authorise same sex marriage, etc.

But the majority of the people (maybe not in Amsterdam) have very strict religious values forbidding just about everything and with major fear and loathing of immigrants. Unfortunately, that same sentiment is growing in most of Europe, but it is usually disguised a bit better than the Dutch seem to do. Only the Danes appear to be even worse. (Not counting Hungary this time!)

I find it really strange since just about every religion says to welcome people in need and take care of them.