Page 10 - Online Paper.pdf

10 Islands THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, March 16, 2017

Election victory

Continued from page 1.
With 55 per cent of votes At 81 per cent, turnout was restrain his joy, tweeting:
counted, Rutte’s conser- the highest in 30 years in an “The Netherlands, oh the
vative VVD party was election that was a test of Netherlands, you are a
projected to win 32 of the whether the Dutch wanted champion! … Congratula-
Dutch Parliament’s Second to end decades of liberal- tions on this great result.”
Chamber’s 150 seats, down ism and choose a national- France’s Foreign Minister
from 41 at the last vote in ist, anti-immigrant path by Jean-Marc Ayrault tweet-
2012. voting for Wilders and his ed: “Congratulations to the
PVV (19 seats) was in a promise to “de-Islamise” Dutch for stemming the
three-way tie for second the Netherlands and quit rise of the far-right.”
with the Christian Demo- the EU. The exit polls helped
crat CDA and centre-dem- The result was a relief to the euro rise to its high-
ocrats D66, data provided mainstream parties across est against the dollar since
by the ANP news agency Europe, particularly in February 7.
showed. France and Germany, However, Professor of
VVD’s coalition partner where right-wing national- Sociology at Cornell Uni-
Labour PvdA got a big ists hope to make a big im- versity in the United States
thumping and lost 29 of pact in elections this year, Mabel Berezin said defeat
its current 38 seats, retain- potentially posing an exis- for Wilders, who has been
ing only nine seats. Big- tential threat to the EU. in Parliament for nearly
gest winner in the election Far-right candidate Ma- two decades, should not be
was green-left GroenLinks, rine Le Pen is set to make considered a sign that Eu-
which gained 11 seats from France’s presidential elec- ropean populism is waning.
its current four. tion run-off in May, while “He does not represent a
Newcomers Denk and Fo- euro-sceptic, anti-immi- populist wave. Rather, he
rum for Democracy FvD grant Alternative for Ger- is part of the political land-
are projected to win three many is likely to enter the scape and how his party
and two seats respectively. German federal Parliament fares does not tell us much
Preliminary election results for the first time in a Sep- about European popu-
are expected today, Thurs- tember election. lism,” she said.
day, with the final vote German Chancellor An- Rutte got a last-minute
count to be presented on gela Merkel’s chief of staff boost from a diplomatic
Friday. Peter Altmaier could not row with Turkey, which al-
lowed him to take a tough
line on a majority Muslim
country during an election
campaign in which im-
migration and integration
have been key issues.
The spat did not hurt the
POND ISLAND--Government had filed a complaint chances of Denk, a party
with the Prosecutor’s Office following the second Ran-
supported by Dutch Turks,
som Virus attack a week ago on its computer network. which looked set to win
The first attack took place in November 2016. three seats, becoming the
Prime Minister William Marlin said on Wednesday
first-ever ethnic-minority
the complaint is to ensure that if someone is “mali- party in the Dutch Parlia-
ciously” infiltrating Government’s system, they can be ment, in a possible sign of
punished. deepening ethnic division.
The Council of Ministers will review today, Thursday,
However, while Rutte
the report compiled by Government’s Information and averted what in the early
Communications Technology (ICT) Department on stages of the campaign
the two attacks. looked like a possible vic-
The report has identified four computers on Govern-
tory for Wilders, years of
ment’s network through which the virus wormed its austerity pushed down his
way in to take over several vital systems including the share of the vote. His junior
Tax Administration and the Civil Registry.
partner in the outgoing co-
Recommendations from the ICT specialists, ac- alition, PvdA, suffered its
cording to Marlin, are to limit access to Yahoo.com, worst-ever result.
Hotmail.com and Facebook and migrate to separate That means it probably
servers for the Civil Registry and the Department of
will take months for Rutte
General Affairs DIV. to negotiate a governing
coalition, with at least three
other parties needed to
reach a majority in Parlia-
ment.
During the Court hearing in the Papegaai investigation Wilders, whose PVV is
on Tuesday, March 14, the Prosecutor’s Office stated
projected to increase its
among other things that the management of Casa Blanca Second Chamber seats to
succeeds in employing women for periods longer than six 19 from the 15 won in 2012,
months and that these “women are placed as newcomers
tweeted: “We won seats!
on the list of Immigration [and Border Protection – Ed.]
The first victory is in! And
Service and the Inspectorate of [Public Health, Social Rutte has not seen the last
Services and – Ed] Labour. Contacts with these services of me yet!”
were tapped to realise this.”
The result is well down
The use of the word “services” in this regard conveyed an
from his 2010 high of 24
incorrect image that “wrong contacts” at the Inspectorate seats, while support for the
of Labour compiled these lists. The investigation did not
two most pro-EU parties
reveal such a link. The Prosecutor’s Office hereby wants
D66 and GroenLinks was
to resolve this incorrect image, the Office said Wednesday way up.
in a statement.