European Politics

Re: European Union

Genghis Khan said:
Some of those quotes are very stand-offish and beligerent, like Perun noted above.
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Not sure what you mean by these words but Perun didn't say that much (not enough for me at least ;) ) about the strongest quotes. He talked more about the delicate issues this guy tried to touch, and that his country needs strong language to get this issue going. I disagree with him because I do not approve of such hateseeding.

Genghis Khan said:
I think I'll do more research on this Thilo Sarrazin.
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Alright. I can already tell you that yesterday he has been fired by the Bundesbank.
 
Re: European Union

Forostar said:
Not sure what you mean by these words but Perun didn't say that much (not enough for me at least ;) ) about the strongest quotes. He talked more about the delicate issues this guy tried to touch, and that his country needs strong language to get this issue going. I disagree with him because I do not approve of such hateseeding.

Alright. I can already tell you that yesterday he has been fired by the Bundesbank.
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After re-reading his initial post on Sarrazin, I decided two comments are of import.  Perun used the words "blunt, tactless and rude" which is not exactly the same as "stand-offish and belligerent", but pretty damn close.  Secondly, I think that Perun may have misunderstood my pondering: "I wonder if the welfare system offers many immigrants an incentive not to try to integrate by learning German, learning about their neighbours, seeking work, etc."  He did say "And when I say unemployed, I mean people who have lived on welfare all their lives, like their parents and grandparents did."  This to me signals, that some people have an incentive not to seek work.  Both Wasted and Invader mentioned similar things they do not like about this, e.g. "over used, abused, and transgenerational" in the words of Wasted.  

As for Sarrazin being fired from Bundesbank, I imagine this was needed to keep their image clean.
 
Re: European Union

I guess an update is needed about my country, the one and only Netherlands, or Holland, whatever you like.  :D

We have a new government. A minority government, the last one was some time before WWII. Also we have the first liberal Prime Minister since 1918. The new guy is Mark Rutte, the first from his political party, the VVD.

Back to the government: it's also the most right wing government in ages. There are two parties, the CDA (Christian Democrats) and the VVD (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy).

From wiki: The VVD is more of an economically liberal party, committed to the free market, and is comparable to the German Free Democratic Party or the Danish Liberal Party. In its economic policies the VVD is closer to the British Conservative Party than to the Liberal Democrats.

In the United States it could be compared to centrist and (in US terms) liberal Republicans, like Lincoln Chafee and Rudy Giuliani. While the VVD's support for the free market and national security resembles that of the Republicans, its support for individual choice in personal matters resembles that of the US Democrats.

This government is relying on Geert Wilders. :/
It's a bit like the Danish system: Wilders' party is not in the government but he has a lot to say.

Other -more positive- Dutch news:

Dutch pension system 'best in the world'
Wednesday 20 October 2010

The Dutch pension system is the best in the world, scoring high marks for participation, the size of the payouts and its sustainability, according to research by Melbourne University and financial advisory group Mercer, quoted by the Volkskrant.

The Dutch combination of the state pension and corporate pension also guarantees workers an income equivalent to their average earnings when they retire. Some nine out of 10 workers have a corporate pension, the research shows.

And the fact that pension funds are now under fire means the Netherlands is at least looking for a solution to the problems, the researchers say. Other countries are closing their eyes to the long-term situation.

'This is proof the Dutch system is well put together,' Willem Brugman, director of pensions at Mercer told the Volkskrant. 'In countries such as France, little has been saved and they cannot adapt. That will be untenable.'

Dutch pension funds have been under attack in recent months because their asset ratios have fallen below the official limits. This means technically they do not have enough assets to meet their obligations.

The new government is planning to increase the state pension age from 65 to 66.
--

Here some more explanation about the research.
Here the whole report in PDF
 
Re: European Union

Nice update Foro! I recently befriended a German exchange student and I asked her about the "crisis," due to Greece's situation. She said it has basically blown over and all is well. I was wondering how accurate was her assessment since a lot of folks were positive the situation not only would get worse, but drag the rest of the world down with it...
 
Re: European Union

How can that government function if it doesn't have the minimal number of hands in parliament to pass laws?

(Please note that I come from Croatia where the iron fist of the ruling party and its satellites doesn't allow their parliament members to vote any different than what is the opinion of the central party committee.)

While I'm at it, here's a nice little Croatia update - just today, the Constitutional court has ruled that the referendum against changes in the labour law (for which there were 700,000+ signatures, which is almost twice than the minimum 10% required to hold the referendum) is unnecessary because the government has declared that it has temporarily given up on those changes.

Note that the referendum law in Croatia specifically states that "if 10% of the constituency signs a petition for the referendum, it will be held. The Constitutional court is mentioned in the law that it only has the authority to say whether the proposed referendum question is constitutional or not, which it did rule a few months ago to indeed be constitutional.

The reason why this was sent to the Court in the first place was because the ruling party HDZ (out of 20 years of Croatia's independence, they have ruled 16 years total) wanted to avoid the political downfall of canceling the referendum. Of course, because the Parliament appoints judges to the Court, most of them owe their seats to HDZ and specifically HDZ's Vladimir Seks who has been the man behind the scenes in Croatia's judicial branch since we declared independence.

All in all, HDZ has recently been called a criminal organization, responsible for the economical depletion and impoverishment of the country, which is totally true. Most of the public tenders for every aspect of life have been fixed (i.e. jobs in the public sector) in favor of the party's members, and recently a huge corruption scandal encompassing the leaders of the party has been uncovered. The first result is that a former vice president of the government has been sentenced to 1.5 years in prison, but it is possible that he will be the only scapegoat. We'll see. If any of you have anything to do with EU officials, please tell them to deny Croatia the EU membership until furter notice. You'll be doing our people a favour.
 
Re: European Union

Ranko said:
How can that government function if it doesn't have the minimal number of hands in parliament to pass laws?
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If Wilders' party will support their ideas they have just enough votes for majority in parliament.
And if they will support his ideas -> the same.  :S

The government made an agreement with Wilders on certain issues where he won't interfere.
And he got stuff in return. Read on:

Dutch coalition agreement - but what's in it for Wilders?

The Qur'an will not be banned, headscarves will not be taxed, and Muslims will not be deported en masse. Geert Wilders did not get everything he wanted in the coalition agreement between the conservative VVD and the Christian Democrats, propped up by his own Freedom Party (PVV).

So what did Mr Wilders get in return for supporting this minority cabinet? These are the main PVV points:

•There will be a complete ban on burqas, and police and justice employees will not be allowed to wear headscarves;
•Conditional passports for new immigrants - to be withdrawn if they commit crimes in the first five years;
•The pension age will only be raised to 66 not 67;
•An extra 2,500 police officers;
•Animal police will be introduced. 500 officers will look after the welfare of animals in the Netherlands;
•The duration of unemployment benefit payments will not be reduced;
•Maximum speed on the motorway will be increased to 130 kilometres per hour;
•The current smoking ban will be lifted for small cafés

Unprecedented
How will it work? First of all, Geert Wilders' Freedom Party will not be part of the new cabinet, and so will not provide any ministers. The twelve ministers (down from the current 16) will be split evenly between the VVD and the CDA, and VVD leader Mark Rutte says the cabinet should be called Rutte-Verhagen I. The Freedom Party, for its part, will support the government in parliament.

This is a unique construction, with no precedent in Dutch politics. To achieve a stable minority government, the three parties have signed two different governing accords. One encompasses what all three parties have agreed to, and the other details what the VVD and CDA have agreed. Geert Wilders will not sign the second accord. However, he has agreed not to bring the government down over policies laid out in the agreement between the VVD and CDA.

Freedom Party input
What Wilders also gets, in addition to the points above, is stricter immigration and integration measures. Some measures, including the conditional passport for new citizens, may violate existing EU regulations. The agreement explicitly states it will try to find as much leeway as possible within existing treaties governing immigration and integration, and if need be, renegotiate the treaties. At the same time, the new cabinet will lobby to change EU guidelines.

The agreement calls for a significant reduction in immigration.

A new Minister of Security will also oversee tougher law and order policies. The new cabinet will thus have a decidedly Freedom Party 'feel' in these areas.

Input from the left
But while the Freedom Party is politically on the right when it comes to immigration, its policies towards health care, care for the elderly and some social services are more at home on the left.

Here, Wilders has managed to minimise cuts in a number of areas. The VVD and CDA have agreed that the retirement age will only be raised to 66 instead of 67. Wilders wanted it to stay at 65. There will be investment in care for the elderly and unemployment benefits will not be further limited.

The Freedom Party also promotes animal rights. For the first time, this country will have a special police force just to protect animals. A number of other policies to combat cruelty to animals are part of the agreement.

There are many other measures the Freedom Party is pleased with. These include lifting the smoking ban for small cafés, building new roads, cutting the development aid budget and scaling back the budget for public broadcasting.

Not done*
The cabinet is not a done deal - yet. The Christian Democrat members still have to approve the coalition agreement, which they're expected to do at a tense and crowded congress on Saturday. If the members vote yes, then the three parliamentary caucuses will approve the accord early next week. Finally, Queen Beatrix will ask Mark Rutte to form his new government, after which he will appoint his ministers. And during the week of 11 October, the new cabinet will pose for the traditional photograph with the queen, and finally be able to get to work.

* This article is a few weeks old: it is done. The Christian Democrat have approved, the rest is done as well.
 
Re: European Union

Ha, that's exactly what my State did... to counteract it they added a 1% sales tax (it was voted on) for the next three years which will create $1 billion dollars specifically for education, public safety and health care.
 
Re: European Union

Alright, if you think your country is fucked up, read on.

I don't know how much this makes the news elsewhere, but it feels like Germany is burning right now. All over the country, people even from the conservative bourgeoisie take the streets against the conservative, bourgoise government that was installed a year ago. At first, it seemed like this government wouldn't be getting to anything, because members of the three governing parties - the conservative CDU and CSU and the liberal FDP - kept bickering among themselves.
However, it turned out that the members of this band of criminals - hardly worth calling a government anymore at all - are brilliant tacticians. Chancellor Merkel successfully used every trick in the book to rid herself of every opponent who could become dangerous to her. But even worse, while all the nation was busy watching that bloody World Cup distracted by bread and games, a set of laws was passed that rank as the most anti-social ones in the history of the republic. Essentially, wealthy enterprises (especially hotel chains) get tax reductions, while (already severely reduced) welfare is severly cut.
Now it seems the government is trying to spark a public debate about integration. I renounce all I have said about Sarazzin earlier in this thread - I see him as a puppet the government is using to distract the public with (by giving him negative and positive publicity) so nobody will talk about what is going on in the country right now: depriving the people of their democratic rights and trading in this country's future for lobby support. If hundreds of thousands from all social backgrounds and the entire political spectrum of the country take the street to protest against the government, that is not a loud minority, but simply the people.

I will try to fill you in on some of the outrageous details if possible, but right now I wanted you guys to know this country is seriously fucked up and people are no longer ready to take things the way they are.
 
Re: European Union

I was talking to this German exchange student last week and she told me how she feels there is apathy from the people. Like when it was said some universities will start charging tuition, nobody took to the streets or voiced concern. So if they are finally showing legitimate outrage it is a good sign, however late the reaction is. Good post Per, looking forward to the updates.
 
Re: European Union

The Germans aren't quite as eager to take to the streets against controversial (or less controversial) issues as the French, are they?  If the Germans are protesting in large numbers, that sounds pretty serious.
 
Re: European Union

Pretty much everywhere, is fucked up right now:
UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Latvia, Bulgaria and a few others.
I hear major complains from everywhere (in the work), even from Norwegians (!!!)
From all the above countries Germany is possibly the less fucked up, or at least, one of the three less fucked up.
...
Maybe France is the less fucked up, at least French are (still) politically alive.
 
Re: European Union

Perun said:
Essentially, wealthy enterprises (especially hotel chains) get tax reductions, while (already severely reduced) welfare is severly cut.
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In the UK right now, the taxman has let off Vodafone a £6bn tax bill (likewise to gratify big multinationals); all this amid record cuts (including in welfare) and the taxman claiming back under/over-payments from millions of tax-payers due to a "faulty system". This shit happens everywhere.
 
Re: European Union

The thing is, such things have never happened before here, or if they did, they were not so painfully obvious. It was honestly a thing people thought would never happen here.
 
Re: European Union

I am more worried about my country slowly but securely getting more right winged without most people realizing it.
I am afraid that an harder and more stigmatizing attitude towards groups (immigrants/foreigners/you name it) will make our society colder.

People are more interested in the person, and the way a politician does his things, instead of what he is saying.
The age of populism is not the age of innocence. Nationalism (and religion) should not throw a shadow over equality.

The Netherlands has always had an example function for other countries, but now we are following other countries who have stigmatized a lot longer than us.
 
Re: European Union

tumblr_ldtfaiQIxI1qz9y8bo1_1280.jpg


The man on the dinosaur is Karl-Theodor von und zu Guttenberg, the German defence minister. The woman at his feet is his wife, who is trying very hard to become a media persona at the moment. This photo was actually taken, Guttenberg, who was economics minister at that time, has since disowned and banned it.

This man is the greatest hope in the German conservative camp, the only one who is both competent and ambitious.

Goes to show you why you should think twice about what you upload in your Facebook photo album. ;)
 
Re: European Union

Just a suggestion: could we rename this thread "European politics" to put it in line with the US politics thread?  There's a lot of discussion on individual countries and not just the EU.
 
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