International

Activists from the SP this morning joined trade union militants in forming a picket line in front of the headquarters in the Hague of the tripartite Social and Economic Council (SER), a powerful advisory body comprising representatives of both sides of industry and of the state, which the government is obliged to consult before taking major measures in the area of social and economic policy. Members of the government, union leaders and employers' representatives were inside the building for the customary “Spring Meeting”, at which policy for the coming months is discussed point-by-point. The demonstrators were demanding that borders should not be made any more open to workers from the new EU member states until existing and foreseeable problems were dealt with.

The SP was, together with the Labour Party, the biggest overall winner in today's 2006 local council elections. The total number of SP council seats rose from 157 to 333. If the party were to repeat its performance in the coming parliamentary elections, it would grow from its present level of nine MPs to seventeen, making it, along with the PvdA (Labour Party), CDA (Christian Democrats) and VVD (right wing liberals), one of the major political parties of the Netherlands.