Dutch parties hold dress rehearsal for European election
It was billed as the first big debate between the Dutch top candidates for the European elections on June 4. But since the debate was not broadcast live, and the election is still more than a month away, it was mostly a dress rehearsal for the real thing.
Absent from the debate was this year's big challenger, Geert Wilders' populist
Party for Freedom (PVV).
2004
2009
CDA, Christian democrats
7
5
PvdA, Labour
7
4
VVD, right-wing liberal party
4
3
D66, left-wing liberal party
1
2
ChristenUnie: orthodox Christian
2
2
PVV, Party for Freedom: populist, anti-Islam
0
3
GroenLinks, green party
2
1
SP, socialist party (far-left)
2
4
Europa Transparant *
2
0
* Former EU official and corruption whistleblower Paul van Buitenen's Europa Transparant party won two seats when it ran in the 2004 election, but Van Buitenen has since quit politics and the party is not standing in the 2009 election. The Party for Freedom, created in 2006 by Geert Wilders, is standing in the European election for the first time. It will likely strengthen the Dutch eurosceptic bloc in the European parliament, which is now the monopoly of the socialist party.
European parliament elections 2009
The Netherlands currently has 27 seats in the European parliament but as a result of EU enlargement this will be reduced to 26 after the June 2009 election.
The 2009 prediction is from predict09.eu and is based on a model developed by three leading political scientists in the UK.
The organisers say they had wanted to include the PVV but it had missed the deadline to confirm the participation of Barry Madlener, who heads the party list for the European election.
More importantly, the candidates for the six traditional political parties were performing before an audience of European politicians, officials and diplomats. Most of them believe that protectionism is not the answer to the economic crisis; they are in favour of harsher measures to protect the environment and they think further enlargement of the European Union is a good idea.
The Wilders factor
But those views are not necessarily shared by the average Dutch voter. Hans van Baalen, who heads the European list for the right-wing liberal party VVD, realised this. "Let's be sensible," he said. "We can go ahead and ignore this, but then the Socialist Party will get twelve seats in the European parliament, the PVV will take the other twelve, and the rest of us will be fighting over the single remaining seat."
Christian Democrat Wim van de Camp signalled that it would be two remaining seats but Van Baalen didn't pay attention. He proposed a five-year moratorium on further expansion to give the European Union time to better integrate the twelve new members of the past few years. "Just look at the corruption. Look at the justice system in some countries," Van Baalen said. As far as the VVD is concerned no new members will be admitted until 2014 - not even Croatia, whose EU accession process is already far along.
Outsiders
In fact, most parties were on the fence about further enlargement. "We have enough on our hands with Bulgaria and Romania," said the CDA's Van de Camp. But he does feel that Croatia has come too far to be turned down now. Even Labour's Thijs Berman, the most pro-European of them all, said he was cautious about enlargement, "and in any case we need a new European treaty first".
Afterwards, Van de Camp admitted to a radio reporter that he 's afraid of becoming entangled in Brussels. It will be an important theme in the campaign: the outsiders against the insiders. Of all the heads of list only Berman and Sophie In 't Veld of the left-wing liberal party D66 are sitting members of the European parliament.
In 't Veld has decided to play the seniority card outright. Trust me, she is saying: "I've been here a long time, I know how things work."