Issues that receive attention

The attention of the whole of the Netherlands was focused on the cold weather last weekend. Perhaps this is the reason that the election campaigns have not really gotten off the ground yet. Although the elections are only a month away, there is not much national attention yet. It is also striking that in addition to corona, three issues are very important for many political parties, namely healthcare, the climate and the housing market.

Issues that deserve more attention

Relevant issues that have not yet been mentioned in the election campaign, but that do deserve attention, include the promotion of reading (22% of students leave primary education without being able to read well), the mental state of young people, better division of care tasks between men and women and free childcare.

Debate is cancelled

The education debate of the educational association AOb that would take place today with spokespersons from the CDA, GroenLinks, PvdA, SP, VVD, D66 and PVV, however, this is no longer possible. The members of the AOb object to the participation of the PVV, as the PVV's election manifesto is too far removed from the norms and values of the AOb.
The North's debate was a good starting point for the coming debates. The main absentee from the debate was Mark Rutte, who was appointed by his student friend Jort Kelder on February 13 interviewed, where Rutte indicated that he had ignored criticism of corona policy for too long.

Scandals

The latest remarkable news of the past week came from both the PVV and the FvD. Thierry Baudet's apps were leaked, showing that he also sent racist texts. More FvD apps may leak in the coming weeks. The PVV remains silent after the revelation by NRC of the Dion Graus tapes.

Women on top

These elections have broken a record: never before have there been so many female party leaders for the House of Representatives elections as now. If you also include the parties that are not in the House of Representatives, there are ten female party leaders. Sigrid Kaag took office at D66 some time ago, while Lilianne Ploumen was recently appointed as party leader at PvdA. The SP has Lilian Marijnissen, Liane de Haan is the leader of 50PLUS, Ester Ouwehand leads the Party for the Animals and Femke Merel van Kooten-Arissen represents Splinter. Among the parties that do not yet have a seat in the Chamber, we see Sylvana Simons (BIJ1), Caroline van der Plas (BBB), Anna Zeven (Blanco Lijst) and Esther van Fenema (NLBeter). Below you will find more women who have a (great) chance of a place in the House of Representatives!

The Hague illiterate

During his broadcast on Sunday, Lubach pointed out the unbalanced way in which the lists of candidates have been drawn up: the House of Representatives will have a permanent committee for digital affairs. This committee will focus on digitalization, appropriate legislation and rules surrounding digitalization and extra attention to legislation from the European Union. But the initiators of this committee are leaving the House and the major political parties do not have any future spokespersons on their lists with extensive knowledge of digitalization.
Politics apparently has a similar knowledge deficit with regard to the financial sector. De Volkskrant notes that there is shockingly little information about this sector in the election manifestos: politics, according to the newspaper, has lost its grip on the financial sector because politicians have adopted the reasoning and mentality of the sector or found it difficult to resist it. set.

Election programs 

Below are brief summaries of the election manifestos of the political parties. We have chosen to feature approximately three parties in each newsletter, so that the information density can be prevented from being too high and the most important parties are still discussed before the elections take place. This newsletter discusses Forum for Democracy and PVV. 

In the orange bar you can see the latest polls (February 16, 2021). The blue bar shows the current distribution of seats in the House of Representatives. Compared to previous polls, VVD and GroenLinks have fallen slightly. PVV, CDA and D66 have a few more seats.

Follow the leader

Research by I&O shows that voters vote evidently depend on the possibility of a stable government and the personality of the party leader. Voters are concerned about who they entrust with leadership in the corona crisis, even if this party has a different position than the voter. Mark Rutte is seen by 63% voters as a reliable prime minister and therefore leaves all other party leaders behind. Wopke Hoekstra receives this confidence from 48% from the voters. The following who are seen as presidential candidates are Gert-Jan Seegers with 44%, Sigrid Kaag with 32%. Lilianne Ploumen with 29% and Lilian Marijnissen and Jesse Klaver each with 23%.

Voice checker 

With the interference of the corona pandemic, social media and postal votes, the elections seem to be more chaotic than in previous years. Partly for this reason, de Volkskrant and ProDemos have introduced a vote checker. Through this vote checker, citizens can see what political parties voted for in the House of Representatives and not what these parties promise in their campaigns.

Simone Kerseboom

(#5 Candidate List Forum for Democracy) 
Born: 1984, Roosendaal
residence: Maastricht
Course: History, Stellenbosch University, PhD History, Rhodes University
Functions: Owner Novel Translations & Language Services (2018 – present)
Provincial Member of Parliament FvD Limburg (2019 – present)
Chairman of the Provincial Council Forum for Democracy Limburg (2019 – present)

Christine Teunissen

 (#2 Party for the Animals candidate list) 
Born: September 16, 1985, Leidschendam
residence: The Hague
Course: History, Leiden University
Functions: Press Officer of the House of Representatives Party for the Animals (2012-2014)
Municipal councilor of the Party for the Animals in The Hague (2014 – present)
Member of the Senate, Party for the Animals (2015 – present)