Dutch Elections

[TopCat]

Well I didn't want to give the game away before the event- but it seems pretty obvious to a bipartisan advocate that the Turkish/Dutch storm was a feint designed to keep Mr Wilders (GW) out of power!

Both the Turkish Govt and the incumbent Dutch Govt wanted to keep GW out - best way to do this is to provoke a fake storm and then have the Dutch Govt stand up to "Turkish Islamic extremism" and then hey presto GW has no grievance and anyone with similar views voted Govt as they were a safe pair of hands!

I would love to see the prvt emails between the Govts right now

[uwbuurman]

I don't think that is true, what you are suggesting. It is obvious that mr Erdogan is a person that trives on incidents, strong words and every now and than needs a fight to show to his people that he is the f#cking best there is. In the end it is just an upcomming dictator. Banning the media, arresting tens of thousands of people who are supposed to be Gülen supporters. Personally I am a bit frightened by the developements in Turkey.

The Dutch government was right, imho, in the way the acted towards those Turkish ministers. Keeping Wilders out of power was also possible without that quarrel with the Turks. Even if the PVV would have been the biggest party, it would not impliced that he would be prime minister or even be in the cabinet with his party. Over time there have been several administrations without the biggest party, in the Netherlands. So no need for some foreign coutry to get involved. The last 3 elections Wilders and his PVV always were high in the polls and lower on votes. Same thing happened yesterday. And the other party in the previous administration, the PVDA, almost deminished. If your suggestion were to be true, that that would have been a very bad outcome for the PvdA.

I think that common sense is a pillar in the Dutch society. We all tend to be a bit negative on things the last few years, but in the end we still are a openminded and resonable nation. As shown by our elections.

[Jeroen]

+1!

We came to our senses in time. No Nexit or PVV win, stick to the conventional political parties. The ones that say we're out of the crisis thanks to them, personally I believe we are getting out of the crisis despite them messing things up.