Thomas wrote:Actually, nimh's observation is interesting, and it surprises me. I know the Netherlands only from one visit to Amsterdam, but judging by how people behaved, how they were dressed, what kind of pubs were common etc., my impression was that it was much more liberal in a hippyish way than a comparable German city would be. Hence it surprises me that your press should be more conservative.
Well, there was this whole Fortuyn-and-then-Van-Gogh thing going on ... it's hard to overestimate the shift in culture and discourse it has caused. The change isn't actually much reflected in political choice (anymore) - if anything, its the Left thats riding high in the polls - but in what people say and how they say it, yes.
And before that, there was the "purple government" of Labour and right-wing liberals. Presiding over what was, unlike (or more than) in Germany, an era of economic boom - and much more than in Germany, of economic liberalism, privatisation, flexibilisation (yes, you're welcome to score that open goal there), it in its turn had already changed the parameters so to say, the frames of reference. Germany, for example, came near-universally to be seen as stagnant, unreformed, backward. They hardly have temp jobs there! (In Holland, the temping sector boomed - practically the only way to get a first job, with medium or low education). The shops close at 3 on Saturdays! (In Holland, they're open to ten). You have that whole right-to-Kur thing going on! That kind of thing.
With that increasing self-definition as a modern, individualised, liberalised economy (it's no surprise that Balkenende ended up at Blair's side last week), came a change in what could still be said seriously or not. Muentefering's comparison of foreign speculators/investors as "locusts" would
not have been uttered by any politician in Holland. Or take the talk in that Sueddeutsche piece of "market radicals", or this bit I partly snipped out:
Quote:Juncker sees Europe falling apart in two camps. "The ones want an integrated, social, solidarian Europe." And the others, he says and means particularly the Brits, "the others believe that a free trade zone will suffice." Free trade zone -- that stands for cold capitalism, for a market Europe without political integration. In this moment the EU really stands at the abyss: Jean-Claude Juncker just declared Tony Blair a locust.
That would so not fly in a mainstream Dutch newspaper, I dont think. We dont call it "capitalism" anymore, thats so passe - its strictly "market economy". Let alone "cold capitalism" - what is this, the eighties?
Perhaps in the party magazine of the Greens or the Socialists, but not in a mainstream newspaper...
Actually, this touches on something really interesting. You mention the Dutch seeming "much more liberal in a hippyish way" than the more conservative Germans. And it's true; when it comes to, I dunno, gay marriage, abortion/euthanasia, drug use or such 'moral' issues, we are, of course, much more liberal. In
that respect we remain relatively "left-wing". But it's the same individualisation and secularisation that has led to Holland becoming one of Europe's more free-market oriented countries now. The hippies combined their newly liberated indvidualism with all kinds of idealist causes; their children are just individualist. And since the Purple government and then the Fortuynist revolution, you're perfectly free to "come out" as such too; egoism = freedom = good. And dont those darned foreigners
dare tell us how to behave! That kind of thing.
Sweeping generalisations all, of course (sorry). But still it's interesting. Take the (post-)Fortuynist far right here. It is staunchly secular, almost as hostile to pious Christian groups as Muslims. Its activist core is even largely republican. They brandish acceptation of gay and womens rights as two more proofs that Western culture is superior and should be defended against the encroachments of the Muslim danger. We have, so to say, a libertarian nationalism on our hands here. Its these far-right groups that did particularly well among the youth the past two elections; in comparison, both christian-democrats and socialists/social-democrats rely more on older demographics. And again, even if much of the List Fortuyn's rather proletarian stronghold voters did not necessarily care much for them, its leadership starkly embraced more radical free-market positions than had been heard here before; and the Group (Geert) Wilders, for whom the same thing goes and who attracts a more middle-class electorate, has its voters behind it on that count too.
So yes - very liberal - both on social and on economic issues, compared to neighbouring countries.
Still, I think the pendulum has started to swing back. Both Socialists and Christian Union are riding high in the poll. Every party with a liberal/libertarian agenda (except Wilders), from the List Fortuyn to the right-wing liberal VVD and the left-liberal Democrats, are set to lose big. Perhaps that will now get to be reflected in the discourse as well. So all is not lost yet
