International

Somebody wrote to the national newspaper, De Telegraaf, as follows: ‘After the European elections you hear no more from the elected Euro-MPs. They simply go off and enjoy sitting in the sun, and meanwhile line their pockets.’ Blimey, not very encouraging if you’re just starting, as I am, a new term of office. After all the publicity it’s been given, everyone should know that the SP’s elected representatives never line their pockets, and that includes the Euro-MPs. The party’s rules and practices ensure that we all receive an income based on the average Dutch skilled worker’s wage. But that things have gone relatively quiet is true enough. The reason for this, however, is that the weeks following the elections are largely taken up with the need to deal with internal matters. So below is an overview of that process, and a little bit of an explanation for the benefit of the writer of that letter.

Today was my first day back in the European Parliament following the election campaign. The same office as I had before the campaign, yet it feels all the same like a new start. First of all because of a fantastic new colleague, Anne-Marie Mineur, who was elected as a result of receiving 52,000 first preference votes, moving her from number 3 to number 2 on the SP list of candidates. And with a partly new team, because around election time people also give serious consideration to their future and applications are received from people who are interested in strengthening the SP’s team in the Brussels. So it’s a new start, though unfortunately not with the three or four seats that we hoped to win. Still, Anne-Marie and I will just have to do the work of four. Brussels is a long way from shaking off the SP, on the other hand. In percentage terms our vote rose to such an extent that only D66 gained more in these elections.

Around 6.7 million Dutch people watched the Eurovision Song Contest, in stark contrast to the 350.000 viewers attracted by the first televised May Day debate between the leading candidates from each list for the European elections. Actually, this is extremely symbolic: you might not bother with the contest if you don’t like such events or simply don’t want to watch, which is fine. But the European Union is different. You can’t say no to European rules and laws if the majority decides otherwise. Hence the aversion: cooperation is distorted into a movement towards a superstate. Give me the song contest any day. No to this European Union, yes to cooperation to mutual advantage.

Election campaigns are always characterised by ‘framing’. Parties offer the voter a choice that best suits them. For example, the liberal Europhiles of D66 and the hard right anti-EU PVV seek each other out to make the election a duel between ‘forward with the EU’ and ‘out of the EU’. And the SP? We have nothing to do with this artificial divide. We have a unique position: not ‘out’ but ‘thorough change’ – no superstate, but honest cooperation. This is radical, but also realistic – which is why we are in the heat of battle a difficult opponent, both for the establishment as for those outside it.