International

As of 1 july, a blanket ban will be imposed on, among other things, gambling ads on television, radio and on the sponsorship of sports clubs and TV programmes. It took years of parliamentary questions, debates and proposals by the SP. Member of Parliament Michiel van Nispen led the way in advocating for the ban.

At the invitation of SP MP Jasper van Dijk and Yoeri Albrecht (director of Debate Centre de Balie), journalist and activist Masih Alinejad came to parliament today. Some time ago, the journalist was imprisoned by Iran for her activism and fight for women's rights. Recently, she has been campaigning for the movement 'Woman. Life. Freedom.'
In recent months, Iranians took to the streets in protests against the Teheran Islamic regime's oppression of women. In the protests, thousands were detained, tortured or killed. Yesterday, Amnesty investigations revealed that even minors were tortured by security forces.

To prevent parts for weapons from ending up in the wrong hands, there needs to be a tracking system that enables these goods to be traced at all times. A proposal by the SP and D66 to look into such a system was adopted in the House of Representatives today.

The SP proposes a private member’s bill to remove the ‘health care own risk’ within health insurance. It means that people who have the misfortune to fall ill will no longer be punished for their illness. 
The ‘health care own risk’ is a penalty for being sick. If people need care they should be able to get care, even if the person has no money to pay the ‘health care own risk’. This penalty on being sick leads to people avoiding care. It is perverse and lacks solidarity. The SP wants to put an end to this once and for all.

'As a prerequisite for the values of our politics, we show solidarity and thus defend the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). In its party programme and policies, the HDP advocates a democratic and pluralistic Turkey in which people live in freedom and justice, for a society in which equality prevails. The emancipation of women, of different ethnic and religious groups and ecology are important aspects that the HDP stands for. 

Employees have started campaigning, ahead of the strike in hospitals.  For some time, the SP has been making efforts to ensure that healthcare providers get 'more than applause'. Our healthcare has been turned into a market, with profits to be made from healthcare money. Hospitals can even go bankrupt while they provide basic service for people. Healthcare has long suffered from bureaucracy, competition and increased workloads, while salaries lag behind. Healthcare providers do not take action lightly; things really need to change.

SP Provincial Council groups in every province are calling for energy supply to be put back into provincial hands. In Groningen a proposal to this end was adopted by a majority of the Council last night. In Utrecht this happened at the beginning of this month.

A growing number of people cannot pay their energy bills. About 2,000 people came to the People's Protest on Beursplein in Amsterdam. This symbolic place, near the stock exchange, was where they made it clear that our energy should not be on the market and that energy company profits should not go to shareholders but should be used to lower energy bills.

A Politico report shows that there are few rules for EU chairmanships on taking gifts from companies. The chairmanship rotates among European countries every six months. Sweden is the current chairman and it is precisely there that doors open wide for companies to 'sponsor' events. In practice, this sponsorship means companies give drinks, cars and cash.