International

The SP is urging the establishment of a parliamentary enquiry into the background to the Netherlands’ political support for the war against Iraq which began in 2003. Party leader Jan Marijnissen will put a motion calling for such an enquiry during Thursday’s debate on the new government’s programme. “This is a moral question,” Mr Marijnissen said. “The Netherlands has the right to know the truth. And seeking the truth is what Parliament must do.”

Marijnissen is asking for a roll-call vote on his motion. “The PvdA (Labour Party) was for a long time in favour of an enquiry. It would be remarkable if they were all suddenly against it, now that they are in government.” In the coalition agreement on which the new government has taken office, there is no mention of a parliamentary enquiry. On Thursday, in support of its call for such an enquiry, the SP will publish a short book on the Iraqi question in which Member of Parliament Harry Van Bommel, SP spokesman on foreign affairs, offers a reconstruction of political developments in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. The book’s title translates as ‘Irresponsibly gullible or consciously misleading?’