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The results of today’s parliamentary elections have the promise of long and complex coalition talks. Although results are not yet final, everything looks like the Netherlands will need at least four different parties to form a majority coalition. The Dutch have a long tradition of coalition governments, but even for them this is extreme.

Although the exact formation is far from clear, it is more than certain that prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende is leaving the political stage. After leading four consecutive governments, “JP the MP” has led his Christian Democratic Party (CDA) to a historic loss. According to the first exit polls CDA is falling from 41 to 21 seats in parliament.

Exit polls (150 seats):

Liberals (VVD) 31

Labour (PvdA) 31

Extreme Right (PVV) 22

Christian Democrats (CDA) 21

Socialists (SP) 16

Green Party (GL) 11

Democrats (D66) 10

Christian Union (CU) 5

Dutch Reformed Party (SGP) 2

Animal Party (PvdD) 1

Local tv-reporter Bibi Telleman is at a music festival in Haarlem, the Netherlands. As every local reporter would do on a day like this, she tries to find out what the toilets look like. Although she is looking for the ladies’, she turns out to be at the men’s. That’s where she meets this American music lover.

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Bibi’s Translation:

The Netherlands is still a patient, waiting for recovery. Although most things seem to have gone back to normal in this tiny European country that was so devastated by the killings of Theo van Gogh and Pim Fortuyn at the beginning of this century, beneath the surface the fear is still very strong.

Today’s 65th Remembrance Day was proof of it. At the end of the traditional two minutes silence in front of the national war monument in Amsterdam, a tiny incident was enough for a lot of panic.

Strange sounds were heard in the audience, a man shouted something, people started running away, some fences fell down and a wave of panic spread through the hundreds of people around it. Kids fell over, queen Beatrix was rapidly brought into safety. More than 60 people got injured.

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Only five days ago, Beatrix had wholeheartedly thanked her people that they had returned Queen’s Day to the Netherlands. It was a huge relief for her that no incidents like the year before had occurred during this national day of celebration on April 30.

The relief turned out to be only short-lived. Today she knows for sure that the patient still needs to be taken care of.

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A 39-year old male from Amsterdam was arrested immediately after the incident. He is accused of causing the disorder by his shouting during the two minutes of silence. If no other accusations will be added, according to Dutch law the suspect has to be set free by tomorrow morning. The fact that he is known by the police from other drugs and violence related crimes, doesn’t alter that. Witnesses said that the suspect had the looks of an Orthodox Jew. Police couldn’t confirm that he really is.

UPDATE Charges have been changed into “causing serious injuries”, so the suspect will be held in custody for at least another 48 hours.

The road sign in the middle says “No Parking for Bicycles”. Still nothing wrong with the famous Dutch tolerance, it seems.

In reality, people with the best glasses can read the small letters beneath the sign: “outside the bike racks“. Which covers only half of the parked bikes.

(Picture taken in front of Haarlem Central Station)

Image by Getty Images North America via Daylife

The fall of the Dutch government, which happened last weekend, brings me back to November last year. Minister for European Affairs Frans Timmermans, gives a brilliant performance at TEDx Amsterdam, where he encourages his audience to “embrace your fears and be like Jack Sparrow”.

Today I asked him if he still felt like Jack Sparrow during the dying hours of this cabinet. His answer: “I did encounter Beasty”. Of course I wanted to know who exactly played the role of Beasty that night, but unfortunately he didn’t answer that one.

Anyway, just to remind everyone that there is still some smartness in Dutch politics, here’s Timmermans’s TEDx speech. In perfect English, he talks about the understandable fear of “the other”, the much needed counterintuitive actions (like those performed by Jack Sparrow), the need for the left to “reinvent its ideology”, to go out and help change things. Yes, this speech has elements known from the Kennedys, from Barack Obama if you wish. But it is inspiring in its own respect. Enjoy 18 minutes of Frans Timmermans.

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The stumbling Dutch government lead by prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende has finally collapsed. After months of internal disagreements, coalition parties CDA (Christian Democrats), PvdA (Labour Party) and CU (Christian Union) have split up because of a bitter fight over a NATO request for a new mission in Afghanistan.

The Dutch have served in the Afghan province of Uruzgan for four years now, with about 1,600 troops. Their current NATO-mission will be completed by the end of this year, but Secretary General Rasmussen has asked the Dutch to stay longer. Which was something Labour wouldn’t agree with. The Party agitated against a Dutch role in Afghanistan right from the beginning of the mission – a period when they didn’t belong to the coalition government.

It is highly unusual for a NATO member to reject a request for assistance. Normally, before such a desire is expressed, the Secretary General has assured himself of the support of the regarding member country. First analysis say that the relations between the Netherlands and the United States might be damaged by these developments. For example, the Dutch position in the G-20 is at stake.

Christian Democrat Balkenende was the leader of the last four Dutch cabinets. Not one of them lasted for the complete four year term. Elections will probably be held within a couple of months.

Proud to be Dutch!

Not everybody realises that it is thanks to the Dutch merchants’ ships, that you American folks can celebrate Black History Month. According to yesterday’s Colbert Report, without these Dutch “there wouldn’t even be African Americans. They would still be called Africans.”

So painfully true…

On all levels, we Dutch like to be mocked about. Even by foreigners in our own country. One of the best in that field is Boom Chicago’s Greg Shapiro. Since 1993, Boom Chicago has mixed sharp writing and quick thinking and to create funny shows and videos. Boom Chicago performs nightly in a theater in the center of Amsterdam. Most of its shows contain a lot of funny criticism on Dutch society, and attract American tourists as well as Dutch people.

Greg Shapiro performs outside Boom Chicago as well; he had a news show on the Dutch Comedy Central channel. Now he is covering the local elections in Amsterdam, which take place on March 3. Watch how he explains the excesses of the “vertrutting” – the feeling that nowadays there seem to be more rules than people to break them.

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Being in the top-9 is exciting. But getting a real nomination for Best Foreign Language Film is something else. Tomorrow Dutch director Martin Koolhoven will know if he can book his tickets to the Acadamy Awards on March 7. His movie, Winter in Wartime, based on the youth novel by Jan Terlouw, has already received a lot of attraction.

“Even if it fails to snag a nomination, it deserves to be picked up for U.S. distribution, because it has enough excitement to seize the attention of discriminating audiences”, thus Reuters recently. Well, that’s one up for Winter in Wartime, because today it succeeded in getting this distribution in American cinemas. Which, on the eve of the official announcement of all the Oscar nominations, is a real encouragement for Koolhoven.

Winter in Wartime (Oorlogswinter) is about a fourteen year old boy who tries to survive in the last winter of the Second World War. Watch the trailer:

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“English will be the working language [in the European Union].”

Yeah, right! Günther Oettinger, the new European Commissioner for Energy, is not exactly practicing what he preaches. In the first 30 seconds of this video he is quoted saying that “everybody has to understand and speak English”. But in the rest of this compilation, Oettinger shows that  English is not really his own working language. Moreover, it looks like he doesn’t understand anything he reads from his paper.

It would be hilarious, if this weren’t be for real, Germany feels. “He acts like an eskimo who looks at an ice machine for the first time in his life”, a Brussels based journalist says. The German Politikwatch: “This is our new voice in Europe. Thank you, Angela Merkel!”

Oettinger’s own last words: “We just cannot allow that everybody does as he pleases”.

Or something similar.

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