The first beers will be tapped at D66 on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 PM. A last minute announced extra ‘election rally’ has just finished and there is a prevailing winning mood because of the good polls. D66 is clearly on the rise and in some polls it expects to double its current nine parliamentary seats. Party leader Rob Jetten sees this as proof that the Netherlands is done with the “political pessimism” and “negative nostalgia” of PVV leader Geert Wilders, he says in his speech.
Jetten speaks in front of a gigantic Dutch flag at the Nobel music venue in Leiden. The members present also received many Dutch flags to wave, although there are also European flags to be seen. Embracing the Dutch flag is a clear spearhead of the D66 campaign. “It is time that our flag is no longer a symbol of a small group of shouters, but…
that our flag will belong to all of us again,” says Jetten, referring to the far-right riots in The Hague last month.
Jetten was allowed to participate in the first television debate on RTL last Sunday, due to the cancellation of PVV leader Wilders. Research by Ipsos I&O showed this week that many voters appreciate Jetten’s performance at the RTL debate, they call him “clear”, “calm” and “constructive”. Ipsos I&O further notes that voters who are now moving to D66 appreciate the party because of the “clear center position” that the party occupies and also “the will to collaborate and make compromises with other parties.” D66 is currently mainly taking voters away from GroenLinks-PvdA and the VVD, from both the left and the right.
In his speech, Jetten says he regrets that Wilders will not be coming to the second RTL debate tomorrow. Next Thursday, at the SBS debate where Wilders will participate, Jetten, as number five in the polls, will not be allowed to participate. The D66 leader therefore talks a lot about Wilders in Leiden, and shows that the ambitions in this campaign are increasing. “It’s time to put an end to it
the Wilders era. If we unite the positive forces in the Netherlands, we will become greater than him. Then we will become the greatest.”
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