Nieuws van de afdeling

2 October 2012

Gesthuizen: 'Don’t treat undocumented foreigners as if they were criminals’

In recent weeks SP Member of Parliament Sharon Gesthuizen has received appeals from hundreds of Dutch people calling for an end to the unnecessarily strict regime in detention centres for undocumented foreigners, many of whom are being unjustly treated as criminals.

1 October 2012

Party Council evaluates campaign: We were too cautious

In a packed meeting room in De Moed, the new party headquarters in Amersfoort, the SP party council evaluated the recent election campaign. There was criticism and self-criticism, the most important amongst which was that the SP had been too cautious. There were compliments for Emile Roemer and for the host of active members.

1 October 2012

Election night: We carry on!

Election night, September 12th, began in an optimistic spirit. Disappointment over the exit polls lasted, said Emile Roemer in his speech, precisely five minutes. The militancy and belligerence of his words conveyed itself to everyone present.

29 September 2012

Van Bommel observer at Georgian elections

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel will be an official observer at Monday’s elections in Georgia. Van Bommel will form part of the delegation of 350 observers despatched by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) whose members will be joined by a hundred observers from foreign embassies in Georgia. The ruling United National Movement (UNM), led by current president Mikheil Saakashvili, will be challenged principally by a coalition of opposition parties calling itself Georgian Dream. Saakashvili has been under fire as a result of a scandal involving torture in a Georgian prison, acts which formed the subject of a recently revealed video taken inside the facility.

28 September 2012

In Brussels, SYRIZA leader Tsipras calls for left cooperation to deal with crisis

Today, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong met with SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras and representatives of other left parties in Europe for talks on the Eurocrisis. Tsipras called on modern left parties from across Europe to organise a new European social movement to increase solidarity between left forces in Europe and develop approaches to the right’s crisis. De Jong supported the call from Tsipras: ‘Employers are extremely well-organised in Europe with all of their lobbies, but as a result of their fragmentation, social movements are able to reach Brussels far too seldom,’ he said. ‘Because of this we are allowing ourselves to work against each other and neoliberalism makes the most of this and carries on regardless, despite all the national protests.’

26 September 2012

De Jong: dubious practices should mean no payments to European Environment Agency

In view of misspent funds and a continuing investigation by EU anti-fraud body OLAF, the European Parliament Budgetary Control Committee is withholding payments to the European Environment Agency (EEA). Commenting on the decision, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong said: ‘I’m really pleased about this, as there are a large number of unanswered questions. For example as many as twenty-nine of the EEA’s officials went on a ten-day “study visit” to the Caribbean, which is certainly not provided for in the agency’s mandate. In addition, they spent €300,000 on a green façade of plants at the EEA headquarters in Copenhagen, despite the fact that this money was earmarked for external research.’

International