Nick Ottens (Atlantic Sentinel) | Few parties are willing to give the liberal prime ministers a fourth term. Revelations that his outgoing government deliberately withheld information from parliament have made it even harder for Prime Minister Mark Rutte, in power since 2010, to form a new government in the Netherlands.
Nick Ottens (Atlantic Sentinel) | After eleven years in power, Mark Rutte is suddenly vulnerable. The long-ruling Dutch prime minister won his fourth election in a row in March, but botched coalition talks have thrown doubt on his future. What started with suspicions Rutte had tried to get rid of a critical lawmaker turned into a wider question about his credibility. But discontent in other parties about Rutte’s longevity also plays a role. Before I dive in, let me remind you I’m a member of Rutte’s political party and voted for him in March. So this is not going to be an unbiased analysis, and the reason I’m publishing it as an opinion story…
Nick Ottens (Atlantic Sentinel) | If the coronavirus pandemic is giving Europeans doubts about the EU, it isn’t showing up in support for Euroskeptic parties. Germany‘s ruling Christian Democrats are up from 33 to 35-37 percent in the polls. The far-right Alternative for Germany is at 9-10 percent, down from 13 percent in the last election. There is no chance it will end up in government. In Austria, the conservatives have swapped the far-right Freedom Party for the Greens in the ruling coalition. The Freedom Party is polling at 12-16 percent, far below their peak of 26 percent support in 2017. Mark Rutte is on track to win reelection in the Netherlands. The far-right Forum for Democracy, which narrowly bested Rutte’s liberal party in midterm elections in 2019, has imploded. In France…
Nick Ottens (Atlantic Sentinel) | 400,000 Americans are dead. Trump added $7 trillion to the debt. He told thousands of lies… Donald Trump’s presidency ends on Wednesday. He leaves behind an America that is more in debt, more isolated in the world, less generous and less safe
Nick Ottens (Atlantic Sentinel) | Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has tendered his government’s resignation to King Willem-Alexander. With only two months to go before elections, and the government remaining in a caretaker capacity to manage the coronavirus crisis in the Netherlands, the resignation is largely symbolic. But smaller parties in Rutte’s coalition felt they had to take responsibility for what an inquiry described as an “unprecedented injustice” in the tax service, which wrongly accused more than 20,000 families of fraud.
Nick Ottens (Atlantic Sentinel) | I haven’t read the 1,246 pages of the EU-UK trade agreement, so I’m going to rely on trusted sources to make sense of the accord. For example, David Allen Green of the Financial Times argues the trade agreement leaves much unchanged. The Joint Partnership Council, alternating between Brussels and London, will be able to make binding decisions without the involvement of lawmakers. So much for UK “independence”.
Nick Ottens (Atlantic Sentinel) | Earlier this month, I took an in-depth look at the draft election manifesto of the Netherlands’ ruling liberal party (VVD), which is likely to win the next election. (Disclosure: I’m a party member.). Now that most other parties have released their manifestos as well, it’s possible to make a comparison.
Nick Ottens via Atlantic Sentinel | The liberal Citizens party has risen to the top of the polls in Spain, receiving 26-27 percent support in two recent surveys against 23-25 percent for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative People’s Party.
Nick Ottens via Atlantic Sentinel | I believe that to shrink the culture gap in Western democracies — between generally well-educated “globalists” and those who feel left behind — we need a new social compact.
Nick Ottens via Atlantic Sentinel | This is a guide to the Catalan electoral system, the parties, their leaders and possible coalitions.