Dutch elections

I was thinking of setting myself the challenge of a blog a day in March. I'm glad I didn't announce it because yesterday it fell by the wayside. I spent a lot of time looking at election results yesterday. Mixed news really. Geert Wilders' party did very well in the two councils where they stood. In Almere, a new town with hardly any immigrant population, they were the top party - but I guess they were playing to the fear factor. In Den Haag they managed second place - but the other parties are clear that they are not going to cooperate with them. So his party is in a strange place were they are setting the political agenda (with the other main parties drifting to the right) but where the other parties refuse to collaborate with a party whose main policy seems to be banning head scarves in publicly funded buildings. Strange - isn't a head shawl part of traditional Dutch women's dress? Perhaps no traditional costumes will be allowed in any building that receives state/municipal funding. I was in France in 2002 when Le Pen won a ticket to the two-way fight off for the Presidency. I heard the fear and outrage then and am quietly confident that this will also turn out to be a similar storm in a teacup (to use a very English metaphor)

On a different note the Green/Left party did really well. In Wageningen it increased its share of the vote to 18%, won an extra Council seat and became the second largest party on the Council. In Utrecht (the fourth largest city in the Netherlands) they won the most seats - so can set the agenda for building a coalition on the council. I always thought it was a groovy city.

Closer to home, in Wageningen, the leader of the party (D66) who won the most votes/seats used to be my landlady - for more than two years - and might well become mayor / leader of the council. Do hear the rustling of cheque books from the gutter press? Of course I have more integrity than that!