International

SP Euro-MP Kartika Liotard describes herself as “baffled” by the behaviour of the two Dutch centre-right parties, the opposition VVD and the governing Christian Democrat CDA, in the European Parliament this morning. Their votes on the report on cross-border medical care showed that the two put economic interests before those of patients. “This is the world turned upside down,” Liotard says. “This is the same VVD which reproached the SP for what it claimed was 'playing political games at the expense of patients'. But if you take a good look at what happened here this morning, then it's clear that not for the first time commerce and profit have been put before healthcare. This is what happens continually in Europe."

This week the SP broadcast a short TV ad responding to the Dutch military presence in Afghanistan. You don't need to understand Dutch to get the message, though it helps if you know that the first slogan which appears means 'Support Afghanistan, Stop the War', while the second asks 'Reconstruction mission? How long will we allow ourselves to be fooled?'. In an interview, SP foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel explains the thinking behind the ad.