Dutch Socialists sense victory is near

[marmar]

from the WaPo:



By Matt Steinglass, Published: August 23


AMSTERDAM — “People used to call us dirty communists,” says Filinta Karabulut, a 20-year-old member of the Socialist Party in Diemen, a working-class suburb of Amsterdam. “Now they come up to us and say we’re doing good work.”

This sea change in the Dutch mood experienced by Karabulut comes after 18 months of conservative government, with austerity policies and the euro-zone crisis driving widespread disaffection.

The Socialist Party’s supporters can taste victory amid the newfound respect. The most left-wing of the Netherlands’ mainstream parties, a group descended from 1970s Maoists, is poised to become the largest in parliament in elections next month.

A win by the Socialist Party and its leader, Emile Roemer, on Sept. 12 could mean a dramatic reversal for a country that has been one of the strongest advocates of austerity policies throughout the euro-zone crisis. If the party takes the Netherlands out of the German-led camp of countries pressing for stricter E.U. budgetary supervision in exchange for euro-zone rescue measures, it could shift the balance of power in Europe as a whole. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/dutch-socialists-sense-victory-is-near/2012/08/23/701630ee-ed43-11e1-b09d-07d971dee30a_story.html

[xchrom]

1. excellent. nt

[Pharaoh]

2. Go Dutch!

[99Forever]

3. Excellent news.

The tide is turning.

[marmar]

4. Dutch campaign to stop ‘cannabis card’ law

Campaigners in the Netherlands are urging people to vote for pro-marijuana political parties in September’s parliamentary elections, in an effort to change a law that restricts sales of cannabis to foreigners.

They are hoping to overturn a decision that will mean from January 2013, only Dutch residents with a ‘cannabis card’ will be able to buy the drug – even in Amsterdam.

That law has already gone into effect in Maastricht, which is near the borders with Germany and Belgium and which attracts an estimated 1.4 million “drug tourists” each year mainly from those countries and France.

.....(snip).....

“We will do everything to get the ‘cannabis-card’ law off the table,” Socialist Party MP Harry van Bommel said in a video interview published on the Dutch pro-weed news site www.coffeeshopnieuws.nl. He added: “This law is part of the problem, not part of the solution.” ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.euronews.com/2012/08/19/dutch-campaign-to-stop-cannabis-card-law/