Dutch Elections

[ItsNick]

Tomorrow, the Dutch 3-day long national elections will begin. There are quite a few Dutch people active on this forum and I was wondering if you've made up your minds yet.

The three highest consciousness parties in my estimation: Green Party, Socialist Party, and Labour Party (and D66 to a lesser degree).

Although sadly neither of these three parties are doing well in the polls.

 

Who do you think is the highest consciousness party/candidate?

Who are you voting for, if I may ask? And why?

[MaxV]

Probably Volt,

What i like about that party is that it understand that most of our problems we face aren't ours as a nation alone. We need each other to face the problems we currently have.

Also the fact that it considers both left and right points to be valid is something i value alot. 

For example nucleat power. I'm for renewables 100% but i also see clearly that, if we want to achieve our environmental goals we cannot achieve those with renewables alone.

D66  for example is against nuclear power, they even have some kind of debunking video. The problem with this video is that they clearly did not do any research on the matter. They use arguments like nuclear waste and how dangerous and costly they are.

But what i noticed is that these arguments are based on the older nuclear plants. There are alot of promising progressions with nuclear technology. But the taboo on the matter is simply too big. I do not consider nuclear fission technology to be the end of be all solution, but its definitely a solid temporary solution for now. 

There is alot of issues with renewables that aren't discussed, like the amount of land needed for proper solarfarms, land that could be used for our housingcrisis. Not to mention the waste product when they outlived their lifespan. 

And for windfarms at the Noordzee. I read something about a farm with 6000(!) Turbines. 

Yes these things might be cheaper in the shortrun, but people tend to forget that windturbines are far more sensitive to breakdowns and issues than a gen-iii/iv(presumably) nuclear plant. 

 

I will not vot for PVV, Fvd, VVD obviously.

I first thought about Groenlinks, but they might be a little too idealistic. 

[ItsNick]

@MaxV Thank you for your answer!

I do like Volt, generally speaking. They are an interesting party with strong social-democratic proposals such as free childcare and free college. But also a bit too neo-liberal for me on other issues such as keeping our healthcare sytem privatized.

I have actually voted for them in the EU elections. But they are really small and I feel it might be a wasted vote.

[MaxV]

Yeah thats a great point! But i do not see it as a wasted vote when they join the house of representatives. At this point they might get 3 seats if i'm not mistaken. 

 

This is actually the first time i'm this interested in our own elections. 
I find the complexity and nuance in the matter intriguing. 

For anyone interested here is the list of political parties we can vote on:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Dutch_general_election

[ItsNick]

@MaxV Probably. 1-5 seats seems plausible for Volt.

But my problem isn't that they won't get any seats. My problem is that we have only a few serious conservative parties and a million progressive parties. This fragmentation of the left really is a problem here I think. And new progressive parties don't necessarily help solve it.

Although tbh most new parties now are right-wing, but almost none make any chance for a seat.

Edited March 14, 2021 by ItsNick

[Ampresus]

Am also Dutch and I completely agree with MaxV. I would say Volt is the most conscious party at the moment, though unfortunately very small.

Btw conservative parties are actually rising in numbers. A quick look at FvD should tell you enough. On YouTube alone they gather the most amount of views. NOS, for example, interviewed (using viewer requested questions) a bunch of party-leaders and it's clear with numbers alone how popular Thierry really is. He got +100k views on his interview, double of current minister-president Mark Rutte. His YouTube channel is just a minefield of hit after hit. Compared to his channel, GroenLinks and ChristenUnie (for example) are failing miserably.

I don't know too much about politics in general, especially about my own country, but I can already tell that they are destined for something big. Their popularity is increasing with every controversial tweet. I don't think they'll be the biggest, not even close, but they'll definitely leave a mark in parliament. Am guessing at least 8 seats, if I'm wrong it just proves how little I really know about politics in my country.

Piratenpartij is also great, they want to legalize shrooms!

[MaxV]

1 hour ago, ItsNick said:

@MaxV My problem is that we have only a few serious conservative parties and a million progressive parties. This fragmentation of the left really is a problem here I think. And new progressive parties don't necessarily help solve it.

 

Exactly Nick, 

I think we deal with the otherside of the spectrum. In terms of choice. In the US there are only 2 parties to choose from ofcourse. In my view this is to limited. But what we have to deal with is simply too much choice. This reminds me of Leo's video about democracy and that too much of it can lead to certain issues. Like this one. 

 

and what Ampresus is saying is quite concerning to me, That the more conservative parties are quite populair at the moment. That the PVV has this much potential seats is something that baffles me completely. 

The Netherlands has changed over the years. It evolves, as a country, up the spiral, it became more inclusive but i also see alot of issues with this. 
its like there a huge collective ego backlash against this progression. Like for example with the whole blackpete (zwarte pieten) situation. 
I understand why people want to keep the tradition. But its also good if things change and evolve. 
Its complicated. I understand why people find it racist. 

Just like with the immigration situation. I work as a housepainter, and well.. in the construction world people are generally quite conservative. And the hate towards immigrates is quite high.  
But i noticed a pattern in this whole situation,  Its like a Circle. People discrimate some because they have a islamic or middle-eastern name or surname, these people get rejected multiple times, these people get bitter and resentfull towards natives, more crime occures, people read this on the newssites and such, natives blame the 'kut buitenlanders', and people with an Islamic or middle-eastern name or surname  get rejected. 
They don't understand that they are part of the problem. I tried to explain this but boy people are stubborn.. 

Its hard sometimes, because i love living in this country, but i do not feel like a Nederlander at all, I've been doing lots of spiritual learning and understanding + introspection. Both contemplating and sometimes with a psychedelic, and i simply feel like transcending the term 'Nederlander' I feel we are part of something alot bigger. 
This is why conservatism feels so wrong to me, its like i mentally hit the brakes or something. 

 

[ItsNick]

@Ampresus I predict the wins FvD will have will be shocking. 

@MaxV Yes. Immigration is the main reason here for the rise of the far-right, I think.

 

 

Edited March 14, 2021 by ItsNick

[Heinrich Faust]

Spiral stages of Dutch parties from my point of view

Green-yellow:
Volt

Green:
GL, PvdD, De Groenen

Green-orange:
Piratenpartij

Green-orange-blue:
PvdA

Green-blue:
SP, BIJ1, U-Buntu Connected Front

Orange-green:
D66

Orange:
LP, Henk Krol, DFP, Modern Nederland

Orange-blue:
VVD, CDA, 50+, JA21, Code Oranje

Blue-orange:
PVV, CU, Denk, FvD, NIDA, TROTS

Blue:
SGP, Jezus Leeft, Partij van de Eenheid

Blue-red:
Wij zijn Nederland