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The Netherlands

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Volkonski
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The Netherlands

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Post by Volkonski »

There goes The Netherlands. :(

Buy gouda and Heineken while you can. ;)
Trump and Le Pen backed these Dutch farmers – now they’ve sprung an election shock
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/19/europe/n ... index.html
A farmers’ protest party in the Netherlands has caused a shock after winning provincial elections this week just four years after their founding. Could their rise have wider implications?

The Farmer-Citizen Movement or BoerburgerBeweging (BBB) grew out of mass demonstrations against the Dutch government’s environmental policies, protests that saw farmers using their tractors to block public roads. The BBB is now set to become the largest party in the Dutch senate.

The developments have thrown the Dutch government’s ambitious environmental plans into doubt and are being watched closely by the rest of Europe.

The movement was powered by ordinary farmers but has become an unlikely front in the culture wars. Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen have voiced support, while some in the far right see the movement as embodying their ideas of elites using green policies to trample on the rights of individuals.

On Wednesday, the Farmer-Citizen Movement landed a large win in regional elections, winning more seats in the senate than Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s conservative VVD party.

The first exit poll showed the party was due to win 15 of the Senate’s 75 seats with almost 20 per cent of the vote. Meanwhile Rutte’s ruling VVD party dropped from 12 to 10 seats – leaving it without a Senate majority. Results on Thursday showed the BBB party had won the most votes in eight of the country’s 12 provinces.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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RTH10260
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‘It’s like hiding an elephant’: €171m feat of engineering creates museum under Dutch palace
Paleis Het Loo was built as lodge for man who became William III, king of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1689

Senay Boztas in Apeldoorn
Fri 14 Apr 2023 12.15 BST

At first glance, William of Orange’s palace seems just as it was in the 17th century – a handsome Dutch baroque building set along three sides of a courtyard seemingly pockmarked with rain puddles.

But underneath the courtyard, an injection of engineering expertise costing €171m (£151m) has created an extraordinary modern museum, opening next week.

Paleis Het Loo, in central Netherlands, was built as a hunting lodge for the man who became William III, the Protestant king of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1689, and is remembered by Ulster’s Orange Order as “King Billy” whose “glorious revolution” seized the throne from the Catholic king, James II.

Less well remembered is that he was a Dutchman who was appointed ruler or stadtholder of provinces including Holland. Some historians say he used the palace for a kind of diplomacy that changed Europe.

In a five-year renovation, Het Loo has been lifted several millimetres, the ground of its courtyard dug and drained 10 metres deep, and a new concrete basin poured in to provide another 5,000 m2 of exhibition space. The puddles above are actually skylights, giving glimpses of the historic building in an ever-changing light – just as the museum describes changing views of Dutch royals.

“It’s like hiding an elephant!” said Michel van Maarseveen, the managing director, standing in the grand foyer. “Techniques were used on a scale that we haven’t seen before here in the Netherlands. It’s a beautiful underground extension but also a renovation of the palace … to be a museum for everyone.”




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... illiam-iii
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Dutch Government Collapses Over Plan to Further Limit Immigration
Prime Minister Mark Rutte, one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, had struggled to reach agreement with his coalition partners about migration, including more restrictions.

The Dutch government collapsed on Friday night after the parties in the ruling coalition failed to resolve a dispute about how to handle migration, which means the country will hold new general elections in the fall.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who is overseeing his fourth cabinet and is one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, told reporters on Friday that he would submit his resignation to the king.

“It is no secret that the coalition partners have very different views on migration policy,” Mr. Rutte told reporters in The Hague on Friday. “And today, unfortunately, we have to draw the conclusion that those differences are irreconcilable.”
A caretaker government headed by Mr. Rutte will remain in place until the elections.

For months, the parties in the coalition government had tried to come to an agreement about migration, debating terms of family reunification and whether to create two classes of asylum: a temporary one for people fleeing conflicts, and a permanent one for people fleeing persecution. .

Dutch news organizations reported that Mr. Rutte had called for limiting the entrance for children of war refugees who were already in the Netherlands and for making families wait at least two years before they can be united. Mr. Rutte denied those reports.

But two parties in the coalition, the Christian Union and the centrist D66, found that they could not come to terms with Mr. Rutte’s party, leading to a crisis in the government.
:snippity:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/07/worl ... apses.html
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
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