In the election debate for young people, the politicians behave to set a good example

VVD MP Eric van der Burg sometimes had a hard time during the first younger debate of PointerTuesday evening in the Grote Kerk in The Hague. There he discussed four different themes with Jesse Klaver (GL-PVDA), Harmen Krul (CDA) and Jan Paternotte (D66) and young people about four different themes: Gaza, the minimum youth wage, living and climate.

Van der Burg in particular emphasized that the VVD also likes to see the suffering in Gaza. And less that his party did not support a national boycott of illegal settlements of Israel at first, or against the evacuation of sick or wounded children from Gaza to the Netherlands, because the VVD argues for medical care in the region, which is hardly there.

The other three Save Verburg and Kabinetpartij VVD somewhat around Gaza, because it seemed as if agreed to keep this debate civilized for young people, and not too polarizing. The MPs made jokes that they should not lean out too aggressively in their chair.

A fierce debate, as you can see more often in the Lower House, would also have been in stark contrast to the harrowing story of a girl in the audience who lost her 9-year-old Palestinian nephew.

Also around the minimum youth wage, Verburg said he did not have a popular message for this audience: the VVD is in favor of a minimum youth wage from the age of 18, so that entrepreneurs can offer more young people a job, he said. Co-presenter Herman van der Zandt provoked some booess from the audience, and CDA’er Krul called for a nuanced position, which did not seem very clear.

To illuminate the housing shortage, D66’er Paternotte expressed that his party wants to build ten new cities. Before one new city is built in the Markermeer, the young people of now are old and gray, CDA’er Krul brought against it. Klaver argued for the government to return to the reconstruction, and have to support corporations with billions to build houses for middle incomes.

The debate was partly intended to give young people a voice in the social debate, with the elections of 29 October coming. Many young people think there is too many looked at the short termand that too little is being listened to. The organization had also invited the PVV and JA21, but they had not responded to this, according to the presenters.

The debate, presented by Mandy Woelkens and Herman van der Zandt, was the first live television debate of this campaign. The first debate between party leaders will take place on Sunday evening, October 12 at 9:30 PM and will be broadcast on RTL.

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