International

Russia's military attack on Ukraine is utterly unacceptable. As well as attacks in eastern Ukraine in the Donbas region, Putin has also launched attacks on other cities, including capital Kiev. Reports of casualties and refugees are intensifying.

The new cabinet is spending tens of billions of euros in an arbitrary fashion, but is completely losing sight of the people. This is how SP MP Mahir Alkaya describes the coalition agreement of Rutte 4. 'They spend billions of which it is totally unclear what effect they will have. But everyone is worse off. Students in the failed debt relief experiment are fobbed off with a tip as compensation and youth care and care for the elderly are being cut back drastically.'

Since the new online gambling market opened in October last year, gambling advertisements have been flooding the TV, radio and Internet. Not only people who have gambled before, but also people who have never gambled before are tempted to gamble. Apart from the fact that these gambling adverts are very irritating and misleading, it is certainly not the intention that more people start gambling. In today’s special debate (a so-called interpellation debate), SP Member of Parliament Michiel van Nispen will call the Minister for Legal Protection to account. Van Nispen will ask the Minister why he refuses to implement a previously adopted SP parliamentary motion to prohibit targeted gambling advertisements. 'This is an insult to the House, which is why I want to have this special debate today with the Minister and will demand that he carries out this motion.'

The parliamentary inquiry committee that is to investigate the benefits scandal is about to start. SP leader Lilian Marijnissen submitted the motion to set up this inquiry. Renske Leijten, MP for the SP, played a significant role in the revelations of recent years which caused the previous cabinet to resign. 

This week the PvdA, GroenLinks and SP announced a bill to introduce a fair wealth tax. The parties want to reduce the inequality in the Netherlands and demand that the largest wealth groups make a fair contribution to our collective provisions. 

The SP Senate group today elected Rik Janssen as its new group chairman. Janssen has been a member of the Senate for the SP since 2019. Before that he worked as a deputy in the province of South Holland on behalf of the SP from 2011 to 2019. In 2011 he was a member of the Lower House, where he had been a staff member since 2007. 

Today in Strasbourg, SP Senator Tiny Kox was elected as the new President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He will succeed the Liberal Belgian Senator Rik Daems, who had completed his two-year term. After former Minister Hans de Koster (VVD) and former Secretary of State and President of the Senate René van der Linden (CDA), Kox is the third Dutchman in this position for the European Treaty Organisation, founded in 1949. At present, there are 47 Member States participating in this organisation. These include all EU Member States and major European countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Great Britain.

Russian-Ukrainian border tensions have led to negotiations on disarmament and conflict resolution. Now is the time to make a virtue of necessity and establish firm agreements to prevent war.

Last week they were on the steps of the King’s palace, glowing with pride, the members of the 4th Rutte government cabinet. At the same time tens of thousands of people were in long queues in the cold city of Groningen. They were waiting for a chance to get some money to ease the misery of the impact of the earthquakes caused by gas extraction. The money available was sufficient for only half of the people. A matter of first come, first served. This was humiliating for the queueing people. It was shameful for our country. It was destructive to faith in government.