Dutch Press Review Friday 4 May 2012
Controversy abounds as the Dutch get ready to remember their war dead. There are startling new developments in the killing of a jeweller in The Hague. MPs face tough choices ahead of September’s elections. And Amsterdam’s mayor hits back at disgruntled Ajax fans.
Remembrance Day: who should we remember?
Remembrance and forgiveness can be uneasy bedfellows, as this year’s Remembrance Day events in the Netherlands clearly show.
Trouw’s front page picks up on developments in the town of Vorden, where a Jewish group has resorted to legal action to halt a remembrance ceremony which is to include the commemoration of German soldiers. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles has slammed Vorden’s plans as “an affront to victims”.
De Telegraaf warns that the commemoration in Vorden could well “descend into chaos” if the mayor and the local organising committee insist on going ahead with their plans.
In its editorial, the paper fumes: “Vorden is falsifying the history of World War Two by honouring Hilter’s soldiers ... If, as feared, neo-Nazis decide to turn up, it will be a complete disgrace.”
AD focuses on another Remembrance Day controversy, this time in Amsterdam: the decision not to allow a young boy to read out a poem about his great uncle who “made the wrong choice 70 years ago and joined the SS”.
The paper sees it as a missed opportunity, arguing: “Today is not just about remembering wars and their victims, but about learning the right lessons to prevent war in future.”
New twists in killing of Hague jeweller
Today’s papers feature a number of bizarre twists in the manhunt for two 19-year-old men caught on security cameras as they gunned down a jeweller during an armed robbery in The Hague last Wednesday.
It was originally thought the two had fled to Belgium, but one was soon arrested not far from home. As the front page of today’s De Telegraaf reveals, his partner in crime has now made a full confession on Georgian television after fleeing to Tbilisi and being turned in by family there.
AD also features the case on its front page, but takes a different angle, reporting that the suspects received “intensive support and supervision” by social workers from “at least nine organisations” over a number of years. All this effort clearly had little effect. The paper says official reports “show a slippery slope from skipping school to the killing of jeweller Ruud Stratmann”.
De Volkskrant reflects on the unorthodox methods used by the police in making the suspects’ photos widely available to the media. It warns that such violations of privacy should remain “a last resort” but concludes that “the exceptional cruelty of the perpetrators in this case justified unorthodox crime-fighting methods”.
Dutch MPs wonder what’s next
Now the Dutch government has collapsed, voters have until 12 September to make up their minds in new elections. But today’s papers report that it’s decision time already for the members of the political parties, as they decide whether to put themselves forward as candidates or bow out of the political arena.
De Telegraaf goes with the headline “Women dump Labour”, reporting that so far five of the party’s female MPs have announced they won’t be returning to parliament after the elections. The biggest surprise is Nebahat Albayrak, who was one of the candidates battling it out for the Labour party leadership only a few months ago.
NRC.next observes that it’s time for MPs across the spectrum to ask the burning questions “Do I still want to go on?” and more to the point “Does the party still want me?” Some stick to the political rhetoric, declaring that it’s their personal mission to “make the world a better place” and wondering whether parliament is the best place to achieve that goal.
Others admit “it’s a job that’s almost impossible to combine with your private life”, while one relative newcomer complains: “Every now and then it feels like I’m going to die of boredom around here.” Time to move on, perhaps...
Mayor stands up to Ajax hordes
Yesterday Ajax fans celebrated their club’s victory in the Dutch Premier League. As all today’s papers report, the festivities went off more or less without a hitch, partly due to the fact that they were banished to the outskirts of Amsterdam. In de Volkskrant, diehard fans dismiss the new setting in the shadow of the club’s home ground, the ArenA, as “a desolate patch of grass selected by our upstart of a mayor”.
The paper reports that Amsterdam’s mayor Eberhard van der Laan decided on the move after last year’s “party” on the city’s Museum Square left 160 people injured and caused over 400,000 euros’ worth of damage.
Yesterday the 50,000 fans were eager to show their discontent, treating the mayor to a chorus of boos and whistles when he took to the stage. But a long-time Ajax fan himself, Van der Laan wasn’t about to be intimidated. Several of the papers quote his feisty comeback line: “I had a season ticket for Ajax when you were still sitting in front of the TV in your pyjamas watching Sesame Street!”