There was
an election on 12 September to elect a new government, so far there is no news who
will be forming the new coalition government.
At the
moment there are negotiations between the VVD which is the right wing Dutch
Liberal party and the PVDA which is the Dutch Labour party.
I was
hopeful that the elections and a new government would mean that they are not
going to pursue the plan to restrict the use of coffee shops.
By making it
law that everyone who wants to use a cannabis coffee shop has to register in
order to get a pass to permit the use of one coffee shop only.
I can
imagine the uproar if a law was passed that makes people register and get a
permit to use one bar/cafe only or being allowed to go to only one supermarket.
Apparently
this ridiculous proposal has not fallen along with the last failed coalition
government, which was made up of ragtag parties.
One of
these was the SGP, which is the Strict Protestant Reformed party, who do not
allow women to be full members. T
They wanted
to restrict the use of cannabis coffee shops, in fact they wanted them banned.
As neither the
VVD, the right wing liberals and the CDA, the Christian Democrats had enough
votes.
They had to
accept parties like the SGP and their ridiculous policies so that they could
form a government, they didn't care as long as they were in government.
They also needed
parties such as the PVV, the party of freedom, the leader is Geert Wilders who
once was a member of the VVD.
Until he
decided to leave and form his own party, he is an opportunist who will play any
card as long as it gets him power.
He likes to
play the anti-Muslim card, and is also anti-Eastern Europeans especially Polish
people as well as anti Turkish people and Moroccans.
Geert
Wilders is a liability for any government, as he was for the last government which
fell because he was alienating many of the Netherlands trading partners.
One of his
policies was for the Netherlands to leave the European Union, this was in order
to pursue his discriminatory policies.
Against
immigrants, and anyone Wilders perceived as vulnerable these discriminatory
policies are not tolerated in the European Union.
Which is
why the PVV did not do well in the elections, as nobody agreed with anti-European
Union ideas, not even members of their own party.
the SPG did
very badly in the elections because of their policies concerning cannabis
coffee shops as well as them being anti-Sunday trading.
The CDA did
badly, because of the ill-fated coalition government, now we will all have to
wait and see who is going to be the new government.
Hopefully the
new government will have the moral courage to get rid of the proposal to bring
in the restrictions on the use of cannabis coffee shops.
In the
current climate it would seem to be an economic disaster to restrict the use of
cannabis coffee shop is to either tourists or residents of the Netherlands.
In the
meantime I and everybody else will just have to wait and see what happens,
hopefully progressive policies will win again backward policies.
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