A lot happens in the election campaign. We’ll keep you up to date with the most relevant events leading up to March 17th in our daily election update.
Press conference
The fact that outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte and outgoing Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Health) held an optimistic story in their periodic corona press conference on Monday evening cannot be seen in isolation from the elections. Politicians at the helm benefit during election time from a positive society.
Cabinet members – with Rutte at the forefront – have made it a sport for years to never answer if / then questions to avoid being committed to scenarios, but the argument of both ministers on Monday was one long if / then reasoning.
Rutte and De Jonge outlined that the figures are still worrying and that the peak of the third wave is even yet to come. All the more reason to stick to strict measures. But instead, society was held up against the brunt of strong easing at Easter and by July 1 at the latest. If it is all possible, of course.
The press conferences are the most important campaign moments for Rutte. They are invariably viewed much better than any election debate. Next week it should become clear whether he has been able to reverse the slightly downward trend in the polls for his party.
Coronapaspoort
Various parties will use the corona debate in the House of Representatives strategically for the campaign on Wednesday. It is expected that the vaccination passport will be an important point of discussion because of the ethical question of whether it can implicitly be forced to vaccinate.
Due to the compulsory nature of such a passport – when admitting to events or catering establishments, for example – some parties have great difficulty with a corona passport, but the government is working out this option to reopen parts of society more quickly.
The vaccination certificate would then become part of the already developed CoronaCheck app. With this app it should be possible from April to prove that you have recently been tested negative. Whether a vaccination certificate will be added to this is still the question, but that will not be until around the summer anyway.
According to De Jonge, there is no question of compulsory vaccination, because the inspector at the door can only see whether someone is corona-free, not whether this is due to a vaccination or a negative test.
Baudet
Forum for Democracy leader Thierry Baudet made such a furore with his Trumpian campaign last week that Twitter intervened for the first time against a Dutch politician.
Of tweet was not removed, but Twitter was labeled misleading. The message could then no longer be shared.
50PLUS
50PLUS has a long tradition of internal quarrels and things go wrong again a week before the elections.
Party leader Liane den Haan has Tuesday morning said that she’s so fed up with the number three on the list that she wants her to leave. The two would disagree on the pension policy.
Links
Even after four years of opposition to a center-right coalition, the left-wing parties are struggling in the polls. Concrete cooperation between PvdA, GroenLinks and SP will not succeed and Faithful concluded on Tuesday: “A left-wing party will no longer make it on its own.”
On Monday evening, GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver had to endure a lot News hour when he was brutally attacked by a former member who accused him of hypocrisy about tackling biomass power plants.
Earlier in the same program PvdA party leader Lilianne Ploumen was attacked by someone who was “extremely angry” with the PvdA because of the cuts in sheltered workshops during the Rutte II cabinet.
And also with the SP knew News hour to put your finger on the sore spot. After all, that party turns out to be hardly attractive to young people and Lilian Marijnissen had to to admit that other parties – on themes such as climate that are important to young people – are better able to bring the story to the fore.
The analysis of the impending disappointing result next week seems to have already started.
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