Monday 16 September 2019

Forum voor Democratie support plummets

Forum voor Democratie support plummets

Infighting and divisions at nationalist party Forum voor Democratie have cost the new grouping major support, according to a string of opinion polls. A new poll by Maurice de Hond on Sunday said the party would win 14 seats in the 150-seat Dutch parliament if there was a general election tomorrow. That is half the total recorded in the spring, when the party emerged as the biggest in the regional election vote. The new De Hond poll gives the ruling... More >

Nitrogen chaos may hit 18,000 projects

Nitrogen chaos may hit 18,000 projects

Up to 18,000 construction projects may be affected by a recent Council of State ruling on nitrogen emissions, the NRC said on Friday. Unpublished agriculture ministry documents indicate that not only big infrastructure projects, but local issues such as expanding pig farms, are being hit by the nitrogen problems, the paper said. The plan, Programma Aanpak Stikstof, was launched in 2015 with the aim of reducing nitrogen emissions (including ammonia and nitrous oxide) in environmentally-sensitive areas such as the Veluwe.... More >

Middle class woes key in Hoekstra speech

Middle class woes key in Hoekstra speech

Migrants should be required to have better language skills and more needs to be done to help the middle class in the Netherlands, finance minister Wopke Hoekstra said in the annual HJ Schoo lecture, which is organised by weekly current affairs magazine Elsevier. Hoekstra is widely seen as the heir apparent to current CDA leader Sybrand Buma, and this was his third major speech in eight months. The minister said he feared the ‘poisonous cocktail’ facing the middle class –... More >

VVD MPs want cigarette display ban delay

VVD MPs want cigarette display ban delay

MPs from the ruling coalition party VVD want to delay a ban on shops displaying cigarettes  in public view by July 2021, Trouw said on Monday. The right-wing Liberals say more time should be given to tobacconists to make adjustments and is calling for a year’s delay for small shopkeepers, the paper said. The government presented its plans to further reduce smoking nine months ago and talks on how to put the proposals into practice have been ongoing since then.... More >

More divisions emerge in Forum

More divisions emerge in Forum

More divisions emerged within new nationalist party Forum voor Democratie on Tuesday evening, when MP and lawyer Theo Hiddema told a current affairs show he felt co-founder Henk Otten had been expelled ‘the wrong way’. Otten, a senator for Forum, was thrown out of the party for alleged financial impropriety this summer and has since launched his own new party, taking two other senators with him. He was one of the co-founders of the party but had been under fire... More >

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