International

The knives are being sharpened. British Prime Minister David Cameron doesn’t want Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel stands right behind ‘her’ candidate. The European Parliament is even threatening a veto if he doesn’t get the job, because the centre-right group – mostly Christian Democrats – the European People’s Party, is again the biggest group and so the voter has spoken. But did you really elect this Europhile who has already been in Brussels for decades? Even if you voted for an EPP affiliate such as the Dutch CDA, did you have this Luxembourger in mind as the ideal candidate? This seems to me unlikely. Nevertheless, the high-flown Punch-and-Judy show goes on. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if in the end it’s another centre-right politician at the head of the Commission.

Just four more days and the polling booths open for the European elections. The Netherlands is still not all that interested. Many people simply don’t have a very positive view of the European Parliament. It is indeed rather odd: a parliament with neither state nor government. But precisely because you don’t look kindly on the European Parliament and the European Union, it’s good to get along and vote. Only if the combined forces of centre-right and centre-left lose their traditional majority in the EP is there be a chance that the road to a European superstate will be abandoned. And if that isn’t reason enough, then if our own governing parties, centre-left PvdA and centre-right VVD suffer heavy losses, then we’ll be going once more to the polling booths, to elect a new national parliament in the wake of the fall of Mark Rutte’s government.

This evening I am taking part in the monthly wake at the centre for the detention of foreigners – people awaiting a decision on their asylum applications, or awaiting deportation after being refused asylum. It is profoundly sad that, on the eve of the official Remembrance Day when the Dutch people remember our war dead, we must also grieve for asylum seekers who have committed suicide in the Netherlands as a result of the harsh policy of the Dutch government. If we are to respect European and international law, we must put an end as quickly as possible to the locking up of foreigners as a means of putting pressure on them to leave. One would hope that by next year no wake will be needed.

Last year SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel put a number of questions on the matter to the government, yet this year too I received an invitation to a party that the Dutch Embassy in Brussels is organising on the occasion of our national day (Queen’s Day last year, now, following the Queen’s abdication, King’s Day, 30th April). In itself all very nice, except that it came with a card which informed us that five multinationals had covered some of the costs. That might be suitable for the King’s line of work, as he sees himself also as a commercial traveller, but I find it scandalous in relation to diplomacy, which ought to be independent of any corporate interest.