My assumption is: a radical right is a disaster, in the world and especially in the Netherlands, where I happen to live. The disastrous consists of this that RR (radical right) is not about political disagreements or ideological dispute, but about the foundation on which those disagreements must rest: the consent with constitution, liberal democracy, constitutional ethos, international law agreements and so much.
Reduce mortgage interest or not? Rainbow -Scrap Path? Interesting, but the question is whether the foundation keeps it on which those politics differ.
Precisely because I am not so left, radical-right (and worse) gives me the nerves: the political disagreement is not the problem, it is the foundation.
I received an interesting voice advice from a friend; He does not say which party you should vote for, but how you could come to your voting choice. And his idea, that I am here, is: vote for that party, which you want the party leader (m/f) to take the lead in the coalition talks after the polls on 29 October.
This does not necessarily have to be the largest party, for example because the PVV is excluded from cabinet participation by the majority of the other political parties, for reasons mentioned above. You can still hope that the VVD will also adhere to that commitment, as made several times by party leader Yesilgöz, already in June of this year.
Still according to the same friend: don’t just let your heart speak in the voting booth, but also think strategically: what kind of cabinet is you in mind?
Except for the PVV and FVD, there are no further political-sanitary boundaries for me, but I myself think that Henri Bontenbal (CDA) has the broadest vision, so I entrust him to take those first steps. The man from the middle, indeed, after the sheaf cabinet, where it could not be seen in the middle of any fields or roads. It is strange that the two new shoots of the same CDA, the NSC and certainly the BBB showed so few orientation capacity. Certainly in the BBB of Caroline van der Plas, I was mistaken. I found the politician himself initially trusting, although her party was never my choice, but what a nasty, right -wing, opportunistic club that turned out. Constitution, Council of State, rule of law in general? Well, where possible, and otherwise not nice. That ‘middle’ was just as absent as the heart in Zadkines sculpture The destroyed city In Rotterdam.
If GroenLinks-PvdA becomes the largest party, I will not despair and weekly layers, as has now become a habit at all parties on the right side of the CDA. The moral panic that releases the red-green combination is hysterical and unworthy of democracy.
Strengthening the foundations, I trust them in that, but as a pioneer I would not please Timmermans but Bontenbal: because, unlike the old CDA, he makes clear choices in advance. No PVV. Afbouw of the mortgage allowance. That ‘liberty contribution’, which of course is a sweet word for extra taxes, but dare to tell the voter if the Russian threat can be felt more every month, also in our part of the world. Maxim February asked itself in NRC AF: “How could you actively contribute to preserving what is valuable?” Bontenbal gives a concrete answer.
In the upcoming elections it is less about ideological difference than ‘democratic ethos’, is my assumption. And I borrow those words from Bontenbal, who has been talking about it for a while.
Stephan Sanders is an essayist.
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