Dutch Press Review Thursday 24 May 2012

Geert Wilders is battling Brussels and basking in the publicity, this morning’s papers report. What’s the best place to live in the Netherlands? All is revealed in de Volkskrant. The Labour Party is jilting its old lovers in the centre and making eyes at the socialists, says De Telegraaf. The Dutch housing sector has struck a historic compromise deal, de Volkskrant reports. And Dutch shrimps might be tasty, but Trouw’s story might put you off them.
Playful Geert Wilders and the smello
The smello. Will Greeks soon be using it to pay for their shopping? The Deutsche Bank thinks they should, anyway, de Volkskrant reports. In the event of a Grexit. Mind you, it’s only the smello to the Dutch, by linguistic coincidence. To everyone else it’s just the geuro, the Greek euro. But in Dutch geur means smell.

So much for the wordplay. In other eurocrisis news, the value of the euro is plummeting, mourns De Telegraaf. Spain is on the brink of the abyss, de Volkskrant reports. And Geert Wilders is doing very nicely, according to Trouw. He’s raking in the publicity with his attempts to stop the Netherlands forking out taxpayers’ cash for the European Stability Mechanism. He describes his filibuster tactics as “playful and original”, de Volkskrant reports, and he says he’ll do anything to throw a spanner in the ESM works.
He’s actually got a point, Trouw admits. In theory a caretaker government shouldn’t be dealing with such a political hot potato. Not that Mr Wilders has the faintest chance of success, the paper points out. It might be hard to explain to voters, but one thing’s clear, comments NRC Handelsblad: “this emergency fund has got to happen”. EU-bashing might be Geert Wilders’ latest vote-grabber as the election campaign gathers steam, concludes de Volkskrant, but as for the ESM, it’s “inevitable”.

Ranking the Dutch cities
What’s the nicest place to live in the Netherlands? The Atlas of Municipalities has the answer, de Volkskrant reports. This handy book rates the 50 biggest Dutch towns and cities on what they’re like as a place to live.
A rising star in the rankings is the southern city of Den Bosch, which this year has made it into the top three. “Our city centre works like a magnet,” the mayor tells de Volkskrant. It’s “a warm bath” for the people who live there, says a local.

Tumbling down the charts to number 29 is the place where I’m sitting right now: the Netherlands’ media town, Hilversum. “Irritating, this Atlas,” the mayor observes. Apparently 13,000 of the people who do all the creative media jobs trundle in from elsewhere – as I do. Hilversum is “old-fashioned and anything but exciting,” moans a visiting Amsterdam student with an eye on a TV job.

So back to the question – where is the best place to live? To hear about the Atlas’ number one, we turn to Amsterdam-based daily Het Parool, which proudly reports that the country’s number one city for living pleasure is still the capital. Nice to hear that although I work in number 29, at least I live in number one.
Labour looking left
The new Labour Party leader Diederik Samsom has taken his own party by surprise by “flirting with the Socialist Party”, according to De Telegraaf. The progressive D66 and Green Left parties used to be Labour’s natural allies, he told news and opinion weekly Elsevier. But times have changed. He wants to strike an electoral pact with the socialists – it’s not a big deal, only about sharing out left-over votes, but still “a sort of declaration of love”, he says.

So what’s wrong with his old lovers, D66 and Green Left? They’ve shifted too far to the right, he reckons. The left-wing environmentalist Green Left has overtaken Labour on the right, he says, and the centrist D66 has swung way over to the side of the free-market VVD.
More specifically, of course, the two parties have cut a deal with what’s left of the cabinet to cut the budget deficit, leaving Labour out in the cold. Mr Samsom seems to be following the line of his predecessor Job Cohen, says Trouw, despite fears in the party that’s he’s turning Labour into a “Socialist Party light”.

Goodbye to housing sector taboos
Rob Mulder and Ronald Paping: you might never have heard their names before, yet between them they speak for the entire Dutch nation. At least that’s how Rob Mulder puts it. He heads the association for homeowners, and Ronald Paping the interest group for tenants, so that just about covers everybody, he reckons. And along with other organisations in the sector, they’ve struck a huge compromise deal on reforming the housing market, de Volkskrant reports.
The proposal they’ve agreed on amounts to a social housing rent rise and the abolition of mortgage tax relief – two massive political taboos. One expert tells de Volkskrant it’s the most significant political compromise in 30 years.

“If the tenants lobby signs up to a two-percent rent rise, and the homeowners and estate agents clubs to tackling mortgage tax relief, you can certainly call it a breakthrough,” Trouw remarks. But in the run up to the September election, the paper adds, we’ll have to wait and see how much of it turns up in the party manifestos.
Dutch shrimp exploitation
“Dutch shrimps shelled for starvation wages.” These fiddly little local shrimps are pinkish grey, salty and sweet, and rather pricy. But by the time they reach the Dutch supermarket, they’ve been on a long journey, Trouw reports. They go all the way to Morocco to be peeled. But not much of the price we pay for them ends up with the factory workers who do the job.
“If I shell for thirteen hours, I do six kilograms, and for that I get just over eight euros,” one woman tells the paper. She makes just enough to pay the rent and do the shopping.
Moroccan labour laws don’t allow thirteen-hour days. But according to the Moroccan trade union, not one of the companies in the Moroccan shrimp sector sticks to the law – including the Dutch-owned ones. The workers don’t receive contracts and their social insurance premiums aren’t paid properly. “Employers abuse the vulnerable situation of these women,” says the union leader. “They just do whatever they like.”