International

The violence in Gaza must stop. We cannot accept more and more innocent victims and the fact that aid is hardly allowed. The Dutch government must speak out in no uncertain terms: a ceasefire is needed immediately.

The SP proposes a law to raise the minimum wage substantially. Under the SP's law, the minimum wage will go up immediately to 16 euros and will continue to rise thereafter. The coupled benefits will rise, too. Surrounded by 500 new SP members, which joined together to portray the number 16, SP leader Lilian Marijnissen launched the new law.

At the suggestion of the SP, the Netherlands will now take the initiative to work internationally on a global billionaire tax.

After the horrible acts of Hamas, we now see the Israeli army carrying out a massacre in Gaza. This violence needs to stop as soon as possible. A structural solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict must be worked on. Such a process includes recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

Israel's government must stop the blockade of Gaza so that basic necessities such as water and food are allowed back in. An SP motion to that effect was adopted in the Lower House today.

The Dutch First Chamber (also called the Senate or Upper House) voted in favour of the binding corrective referendum. The SP proposal won the required two-thirds majority in the Senate. An important step to give people more say.

More than a thousand people, most of them ordinary civilians, have been killed in Israel and Palestine over the past few days. This spiral of violence must be broken as soon as possible and efforts made to find a diplomatic, political solution. A conversation with SP parliamentarian Jasper van Dijk.

It is one of the reasons why there is insufficient space for sheltering asylum seekers: wealthy municipalities who evade sheltering asylum seekers. The top 20 poorest municipalities shelter more than twice as many asylum seekers as the top 20 most wealthy municipalities. The House of Representatives now supports a proposal by SP MP Jasper van Dijk to consider not only the population of a city or village when receiving asylum seekers, but also to look at rich and poor municipalities.

Everyone should be able to make ends meet. To buy food, to have affordable housing, good health care and education. Unfortunately, too many people today do not have access to these basic certainties. Radical change is needed to correct this injustice. Where individual self-interest and financial gain take a back seat to social interest and solidarity. Where wealth is distributed more fairly. Where vital provisions such as affordable housing, health care, public transport and energy are in public hands. Without a profit motive and competition.