Das war einmal
4th March 2010, 13:19
Yesterday we had the city council/municipal council elections in The Netherlands. The biggest left party next to the soc.-dem. party, the Socialist Party (SP) lost big time. The Green Left on the other hand gained support and votes, but it is to be mentioned that they have partly taken over the liberal economic agenda (they called upon young people to sign out of the labour unions when the labour unions showed resistance against the proposal to raise the retirement age). 56% of the people allowed to vote did actually vote (which is the lowest amount in years)
The Soc.-dems got a beating too, although probably less hard because they pulled the plug out of the unpopular government. Their former christian democratic (like the CDU/CSU in Germany) ally also lose big time.
Our own communist party, the new communist party of the Netherlands, did not gain much support but did not lose many votes either, it still remains insignificant though in terms of municipal elections. But this was to be expected.
The far right actually won all over the Netherlands, with right-liberals following in their wake.
What can we learn from this? The left (aside from the green left but they already left their former social-economic agenda largely in the trash can) has not convinced the voter to either go to voting booth or they likely went to vote for far right parties (who partly take over the somewhat popular social agenda of the left) who are calling for less tolerant positions against people who, in their eyes, dont conform enough. The disdain towards Muslims has probably had some effect in this.
It should be said that the former popular Socialist Party has taken a opportunistic stance towards the people to gain voters. They succeeded with this in 2006 when the left won (the media called this 'the left spring') a lot of voters and the large right parties (the liberals and conservatives) lost a lot of support). These people selected for the municipal council did not exploit this opportunity.
Where from here?
It seems to me that it really does not matter what kind of parties won the elections, in 4 years there is a high chance that there will be another 'left spring', the Dutch people are not happy with whoever is in charge and dont seem that consistent, trading the far left for the far right from one moment into another. (the only consistency lies with the Christian parties as always). The left was elected in 2006 and 2 years later a crisis broke out so its really bad timing in that sense. Calling the crisis a result of right/neoliberal politics proves to be insignificant to convince others.
We also did not win by trying to exploit the capitalist crisis for electoral success. The anger people experience is channelled into disdain towards fellow countrymen of alien origin (particularly the Muslims). The victors are all populists. The old opportunists will be exchanged for new right winged ones.
The Socialist Party will have to think about changing their current tactics. We too, but for us it was more of an experiment. You cant blame the CP for trying different tactics. This did obviously not work enough. It should be mentioned that the same trends manifest in other west-European countries.
The focus was already pointing towards street activity, actively taking part in student- and labour organizations, although it will be a lot harder without people representing in the municipal councils.
The Soc.-dems got a beating too, although probably less hard because they pulled the plug out of the unpopular government. Their former christian democratic (like the CDU/CSU in Germany) ally also lose big time.
Our own communist party, the new communist party of the Netherlands, did not gain much support but did not lose many votes either, it still remains insignificant though in terms of municipal elections. But this was to be expected.
The far right actually won all over the Netherlands, with right-liberals following in their wake.
What can we learn from this? The left (aside from the green left but they already left their former social-economic agenda largely in the trash can) has not convinced the voter to either go to voting booth or they likely went to vote for far right parties (who partly take over the somewhat popular social agenda of the left) who are calling for less tolerant positions against people who, in their eyes, dont conform enough. The disdain towards Muslims has probably had some effect in this.
It should be said that the former popular Socialist Party has taken a opportunistic stance towards the people to gain voters. They succeeded with this in 2006 when the left won (the media called this 'the left spring') a lot of voters and the large right parties (the liberals and conservatives) lost a lot of support). These people selected for the municipal council did not exploit this opportunity.
Where from here?
It seems to me that it really does not matter what kind of parties won the elections, in 4 years there is a high chance that there will be another 'left spring', the Dutch people are not happy with whoever is in charge and dont seem that consistent, trading the far left for the far right from one moment into another. (the only consistency lies with the Christian parties as always). The left was elected in 2006 and 2 years later a crisis broke out so its really bad timing in that sense. Calling the crisis a result of right/neoliberal politics proves to be insignificant to convince others.
We also did not win by trying to exploit the capitalist crisis for electoral success. The anger people experience is channelled into disdain towards fellow countrymen of alien origin (particularly the Muslims). The victors are all populists. The old opportunists will be exchanged for new right winged ones.
The Socialist Party will have to think about changing their current tactics. We too, but for us it was more of an experiment. You cant blame the CP for trying different tactics. This did obviously not work enough. It should be mentioned that the same trends manifest in other west-European countries.
The focus was already pointing towards street activity, actively taking part in student- and labour organizations, although it will be a lot harder without people representing in the municipal councils.