Category Archives: Netherlands

‘It is humbling’: Mark Rutte claims fourth term in Netherlands election – video

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Mark Rutte has claimed an 'overwhelming' victory in national elections in the Netherlands, vowing to use a fourth term in office to rebuild the country after the coronavirus pandemic.

Exit polls on Wednesday night suggested the VVD party had won 35 of the Dutch parliament's 150 seats, two more than in the previous election, while the pro-European D66 party finished second with 27 seats, up eight and the party’s best ever result.

The far-right, anti-Islam Freedom party (PVV) of Geert Wilders, meanwhile, lost three seats compared with the 2017 election, finishing third, equal with the Christian Democrats (CDA)

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Netherlands election: Mark Rutte claims fourth term with ‘overwhelming’ victory

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Exit polls suggest the prime minister’s VVD party increased its share of seats as it won a national ballot seen as referendum on handling of Covid crisis

Mark Rutte has claimed an “overwhelming” victory in national elections in the Netherlands, vowing to use a fourth term in office to rebuild the country after the coronavirus pandemic.

Following a dull campaign fought during the pandemic and seen as a referendum on the government’s performance during the crisis, exit polls suggested the VVD had won 35 of the Dutch parliaments 150 seats, two more than in the previous election.

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Netherlands election: Mark Rutte set to win big – but what next?

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Analysis: PM is on course for fourth term in office. What is his secret and how is next coalition government likely to look?

The outgoing prime minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, appears headed for a comprehensive victory and fourth successive term in office as the Dutch go to the polls in national elections on Monday, with voting spread over three days due to coronavirus restrictions.

Polls predict Rutte, who has headed three coalition governments of different political complexions since 2010, and his centre-right People’s party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) will win twice as many parliamentary seats as his nearest rival.

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How Covid derailed the great hope of the Dutch far right | Joost de Vries

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In 2019 Thierry Baudet looked like a plausible contender for power. Now, as the Netherlands heads for the polls, he’s reduced to mimicking Trump

On 20 March 2019, Thierry Baudet provided Dutch television viewers with two surprises. The first was news of his landslide victory in that day’s senate elections. Baudet’s far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD) was a newcomer in parliament, holding just two seats out of 150 in the lower house. But that day, from scratch, Forum gained 12 of the senate’s 75 seats, putting it on a par with the governing liberal party (the VVD) led by prime minister Mark Rutte.

The second surprise was Baudet’s victory speech. “The owl of Athena spreads her wings as evening falls,” he started, and across the country, jaws dropped and drinks were spilled. The Netherlands is not a country noted for oratory. Our politicians would rather downplay their intellectual prowess than borrow from Greek mythology.

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‘Shocked by the uproar’: Amanda Gorman’s white translator quits

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International Booker winner Marieke Lucas Rijneveld will not translate inaugural poet’s work into Dutch after anger that a Black writer was not hired

The acclaimed author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld has pulled out of translating Amanda Gorman’s poetry into Dutch, after their publisher was criticised for picking a writer for the role who was not also Black.

Related: 'My family are too frightened to read my book': meet Europe's most exciting authors

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Covid has ‘taken wind out of Dutch politics’, analysts say as elections loom

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Mark Rutte enters final leg of race in dominant position despite ‘difficult phase’ of pandemic

Coronavirus has “completely taken the wind out of Dutch politics”, analysts say, predicting little change in the makeup of the coalition government after March elections as the prime minister, Mark Rutte, begins cautiously easing restrictions.

Despite three nights of rioting and 400 arrests after a night-time curfew, the first since the second world war, was imposed in January, and one of Europe’s slowest vaccine rollouts, Rutte enters the last two weeks of the election race in a dominant position.

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Engine parts drop from Boeing 747 cargo plane in Netherlands

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Longtail Aviation cargo plane scatters small metal parts over Meerssen, injuring woman

Dutch authorities are investigating after a Boeing 747-400 cargo plane dropped engine parts shortly after takeoff from Maastricht airport.

The Longtail Aviation Flight 5504 cargo plane scattered mostly small metal parts over the southern Dutch town of Meerssen on Saturday, causing damage and injuring a woman.

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Dutch court reinstates Covid curfew minutes before its start time

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Earlier ruling that emergency powers were wrongly used is overturned, with full hearing due on Friday

A Dutch appeals court has ruled that the government’s controversial coronavirus curfew must stay in place until a hearing later this week to decide whether the measure is legal.

The government had been stunned when a lower court judge ruled earlier that it must immediately lift the Netherlands’ first curfew since the second world war because it had wrongly used emergency powers to invoke it.

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Storm Darcy brings heavy snow and travel disruption to Europe – video

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Authorities in the Netherlands declared a rare 'code red' emergency for the entire country as it was hit by its first proper snowstorm in more than a decade.

In the UK, amber and yellow weather warnings for snow were issued by the Met Office with widespread travel problems expected

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Storm Darcy: Netherlands declares ‘code red’ emergency as rare snowstorm hits

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The worst weather for a decade causes all trains to be cancelled but raises hopes of first traditional ice-skating marathon for 24 years

Authorities in the Netherlands declared a rare “code red” emergency for the entire country as it was hit by its first proper snowstorm in more than a decade.

Storm Darcy, which has also sent temperatures plummeting across Germany, packed winds of up to 90km (55 miles) an hour and sent temperatures as low as 5C (23F).

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‘We want our riches back’ – the African activist taking treasures from Europe’s museums

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Mwazulu Diyabanza has been fined and jailed for entering museums and forcibly removing ‘pillaged’ African artefacts. He tells our writer why the British Museum is now in his sights

Mwazulu Diyabanza makes no secret of why he is in France. If coronavirus had not closed most of Europe’s museums, the Congolese activist would probably be inside one right now, wresting African objects from their displays to highlight what he sees as the mass pillaging of the continent by European colonialists.

And it’s not just the mighty museums. Diyabanza and his supporters also plan to include smaller galleries, private collections and auction houses in their campaign. “Wherever the riches of our heritage and culture have been stolen,” says the 42-year-old, “we will intervene.” As the leader of a pan-African movement called Yanka Nku (Unity, Dignity and Courage), Diyabanza is on a mission is to recover all works of art and culture taken from Africa to Europe. He calls his method “active diplomacy”.

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A quarter of people in France, Germany and the US may refuse Covid vaccine

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Survey finds hesitancy related to trust in government, and more acute in younger people

Nearly four in ten people in France, more than 25% of those in the US and 23% in Germany say they definitely or probably will not get vaccinated against Covid-19, according to a survey that underlines the challenge facing governments.

Hesitancy was markedly lower in Italy (12%), the UK (14%) and the Netherlands (17%), according to the seven-country survey, which revealed a close correlation between people’s reluctance to be vaccinated and their trust in central government.

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From lockdowns to pool parties: how Covid rules vary around the world

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Countries have adopted different rules on business activity, education, socialising and travel

Curfews and lockdowns Restrictions have largely been relaxed in most of Brazil’s 26 states, although several continue to limit opening hours for bars, restaurants and shops. A round-the-clock curfew was imposed this week in Brazil’s biggest state, Amazonas, after hospitals were overwhelmed.

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Germany to push on with Covid travel ban plan as EU tries to coordinate rules

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Berlin planning to ban travel from UK, Portugal, Brazil and South Africa to stop spread of variants

Germany is planning a near-total ban on travellers from Britain, Portugal, Brazil and South Africa as European governments increasingly move to bar entry from countries where more contagious Covid-19 variants are rampant.

Berlin’s initiative came as EU interior ministers met to discuss a more coordinated approach to international travel restrictions.

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EU’s vaccine supply issues mean light at end of tunnel that much further away

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Analysis: Frustration around restrictions in Netherlands could be voiced in other countries

In recent nights, rioters have poured on to the streets of 10 Dutch cities in what has been the closest Europe has come to open revolt against the coronavirus restrictions imposed across the continent.

The violence, the worst in four decades, might be put down to the liberty-loving culture of the country or an outbreak of straightforward criminality but, perhaps not coincidentally, the Netherlands is also the very last EU member state to start vaccinating the public and offer some hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

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Registration cards of Dutch Holocaust victims to go on display

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Red Cross returns nearly 160,000 records, many of which belonged to Dutch Jews sent to Nazi death camps

Nearly 160,000 registration cards belonging to Dutch Jews and people from other persecuted minorities, many of whom were destined for Nazi death camps, will be put on display for the first time in the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam after being handed over by the Red Cross.

The cards include name, address, date of birth, profession, marital status, family composition and, in three out of four cases, the date of their transport to a concentration camp written in red pencil. They ended up with the Red Cross after the war and were used to locate missing persons.

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Netherlands shaken by third night of riots over coronavirus curfew – video

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A third night of rioting has shaken the Netherlands as protesters rampaged through towns and cities around the country after government introduced a night-time curfew.

More than 180 people were arrested on Monday in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, where shops were vandalised and looted

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Anti-lockdown rioters clash with Dutch police in the Netherlands – video

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Police in Amsterdam used water cannon to disperse protesters demonstrating against Covid-19 restrictions while in the southern city of Eindhoven cars were burnt and shops smashed in riots against the country's lock-down measures. Riot police on horseback attempted to clear the demonstrators in both cities where hundreds of people were arrested. A nighttime curfew went into effect on Saturday in a bid to rein in the coronavirus. Parliament voted narrowly last week to approve the curfew, swayed by assertions that an English variant is about to cause a new surge in cases

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Alleged drug lord on world’s most wanted list arrested in Amsterdam

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Tse Chi Lop detained at request of Australian police investigating $70bn-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade

Dutch police said on Saturday they had arrested the alleged leader of an Asian drug syndicate who is listed as one of the world’s most wanted fugitives and has been compared to Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Tse Chi Lop, a Chinese-born Canadian national, was detained on Friday at the request of Australian police, who led an investigation that found his organisation dominates the $70bn-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade, Dutch police spokesman Thomas Aling said.

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‘We need answers’: why are people living near Dutch goat farms getting sick?

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A decade after an outbreak of Q fever killed 95 people in the Netherlands, scientists fear the emergence of a new disease

In early 2008, Jeannette van de Ven began to see a slightly higher rate of miscarriages among the goats on her dairy farm in the south of the Netherlands.

“We sent the samples to the veterinary authority. Nine out of 10 results showed no explanation. Only maybe toxoplasmosis from cats. We had no cats,” she says.

Van de Ven, who keeps a herd of around 1,700 dairy goats in Noord-Brabant, a province densely populated with goat farms, kept sending samples. Finally, in May 2008 an outbreak of the respiratory infection Q fever was confirmed. It infects livestock including goats, sheep and cattle, and is found in placenta, amniotic fluid, urine, faeces and milk.

The disease turned into a nightmare for the Netherlands after thousands of people also became infected during the outbreak, which lasted from 2007 to 2010. The Dutch government culled more than 50,000 dairy goats on 55 farms in an effort to stop the spread of the disease.

About half of the humans infected ended up developing complications, such as heart failure, and 95 people died.

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