Dutch elections: who would you vote for?

[Locutus]

The Dutch elections are tomorrow but since we don't have enough of a Dutch community for a proper political discussion that doesn't really warrant a serious thread. Therefore, which Dutch party leader (of the top 14 largest parties) would you vote for, based on their portrait? The candidates:


Harry Potter:




Young Emperor Palpatine:




(Beauty and) the Nerd:




Homer Simpson:




Frodo Baggins:




Kira Nerys:




Jar-Jar Binks:




Mr Bean:




(Ernie and) Bert:




Inspecteur Clouseau:




Charlie's Angel:




Jack O'Neill:




Commodore Norrington:




Jabba the Hutt:




Dutch posters can use this thread for slightly more serious discussion if they want

[LordShiva]

Charlie's Angel

[Nubclear]

Re: Dutch elections: who would you vote for?

Originally posted by Locutus

Dutch posters can use this thread for slightly more serious discussion if they want

I was going to ask about the Party platforms and the Dutch electoral process, but since you limited serious discussion to Dutch posters.....

lol dutchland LOL

[Datajack Franit]

The Netherlands




Luxembourg





Sharing your national flag with less fortunate countries

[SlowwHand]

[DanS]

Tough choice between Charlie's Angel and Young Emperor Palpatine. YEP looks like he could do what is necessary.

If you post more pics of Charlie's Angel, I might be able to decide.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar


I was going to ask about the Party platforms and the Dutch electoral process, but since you limited serious discussion to Dutch posters.....

lol dutchland LOL

Alright, just for you Real names/platforms:

Harry Potter: Jan-Peter Balkenende, CDA (Christian Democrats), current PM
Seats in Parliament now: 44 In polls: 42-43
Comparable to CDU in Germany, slightly right-of-the-centre (currently in government), though a lot of people will tell you they've been a lot more than 'slightly' right of the centre in the last few years (of course CDAers themselves will deny this).

Young Emperor Palpatine: Wouter Bos, Partij van de Arbeid (Labour)
Seats in Parliament now: 42 In polls: 37-39
Comparable to Labour in England, slightly left-of-the-centre.

The battle for the Prime Ministership is between these two and is a very, very close one according to most polls. The party that becomes the biggest party normally gets the PM-ship (though this is not strictly necessary: the position can be used as barter in the negotiations to form a government). Logically these two parties should form the new government after the elections based on the polls (since they are the only two-party combination that will have more than 50% of seats in parliament), but they don't like each other very much (especially their leaders but the rest of the parties aren't exactly best buds either) and noone in the country wants them to, so we could be in a for a long, long winter trying to establish a new government...

(Beauty and) the Nerd: Mark Rutte, VVD (Liberal Conservatives)
Seats in Parliament now: 28 In polls: 20-21
Comparable to (moderate) Republicans in the US, right-wing (currently in government).

Homer Simpson: Jan Marrijnissen, SP (Socialists)
Seats in Parliament now: 9 In polls: 22-24
Used to be an extremely left-wing, radical party (probably almost communist from an American viewpoint), have become more moderate of late now participating in a government has become a real possibility.

Frodo Baggins: Olaf Stuger, Fortuyn (-)
Seats in Parliament now: 8 In polls: 0
Left-over of the Pim Fortuyn movement, not really a proper party but just a list of individuals without any leadership or direction (all the 'Fortuynists' below used to belong to this group but split off over the years), and have 0 seats in the polls (they had 26 just a few years ago until people were stupid enough to entrust them with power, they screwed up so fast that if you blinked you missed them).

Kira Nerys: Femke Halsema, GroenLinks (Greens)
Seats in Parliament now: 8 In polls: 8
Fairly comparable to Green parties everywhere, though lately they've been a lot more focused on non-environmental issues and in that regard they are fairly liberal for a Green party (though still decidedly left-wing overall).

Jar-Jar Binks: Alexander Pechtold, D66 (Radical Democrats, Liberals)
Seats in Parliament now: 6 In polls: 1-3
No real equivalent that I know of, want to further democratise the political process: electorial reforms, elected mayors, elected PM, referenda on all major issues, etc. They've been in government almost uninterrupted for 12 years but failed to achieve even a single one of their primary goals and let other parties walk right over them time and time again, meaning most of their (former) members/voters (including yours truly) are utterly disappointed with them and refuse to support them any longer (they had over 20 seats in parliament not too long ago). In day-to-day issues they're pragmatic, though heavily tending towards liberalism.

Mr Bean: Andre Rouvoet, ChristenUnie, (Christian Conservatives)
Seats in Parliament now: 3 In polls: 5-6
Basically Christian fundies that promote family values, though they aren't nearly as bad as the SGP (below). Increasingly get the vote (at least according to polls) from non-fundie CDA voters who are disappointed with the alleged 'anti-family' and 'anti-social' policies of the CDA under Balkenende. Probably not too different from conservative Republicans in the US.

(Ernie and) Bert: Bas van der Vlies, SGP (Christian Fundamentalists)
Seats in Parliament now: 2 In polls: 2
Christian fundies of the worst kind, these guys pretty much take the Bible literally. Until the government recently cut their funds they didn't even allow women as members (now they're formally allowed as members but still don't have any real power and aren't allowed to serve in political functions).

Inspecteur Clouseau: Gerrit de Wit, Nederland Transparant (Anti-corruption activists)
Seats in Parliament now: 0 In polls: 0
Alleged 'apolitical' one-issue party that wants to promote 'transparancy' in politics and fight fraud, corruption, behind-closed-doors political games, etc.

Charlie's Angel: Marianne Thieme, Partij voor de Dieren (Animal rights activists)
Seats in Parliament now: 0 In polls: 1-2
One-issue party of animal rights activists, pretty much a political version of the PETA in the US.

Jack O'Neill: Marco Pastors, EenNL (Populist)
Seats in Parliament now: 0 In polls: 2
Commodore Norrington: Geert Wilders, Partij voor de Vrijheid (Populist)
Seats in Parliament now: 0 In polls: 3-4
Jabba the Hutt: Hilbrant Nawijn, Partij voor Nederland (Populist)
Seats in Parliament now: 0 In polls: 0

These are all populist right-wing xenophobes claiming to carry on the legacy of Pim Fortuyn, most left the 'Fortuyn party' at some point or another in the past 4 years. If they'd work together they'd probably have a good chance of garnering a large portion of the vote (like Le Pen/Front National in France, Hayder/FPO in Austria or De Winter/Vlaams Belang in Belgium), many more than their current individual seats combined, but they're all too self-absorbed and proud to do so, thankfully. Geert Wilders is probably the most moderate of the lot (he's the only one to not have come from the Fortuyn movement but instead from the VVD, though ironically many objective outsiders see him as the one who probably best represents Fortuyn's legacy), Nawijn the most extreme.


It should be noted that 30-40% of the voters didn't know what to vote yet 48 hours before the election so the poll results I listed are quite unreliable and the close race for the PM-ship is/will likely drive a lot of people who would otherwise vote for a smaller party to either CDA or PvdA.


Some more Charlie's Angel/Marianne Thieme pics for the animal rights lovers Unfortunately she's from a small activist party so it's hard to find good pics of her

[SlowwHand]

I voted for her? Talk about wasted vote...

[Cort Haus]

Inspecteur Clouseau. I can't stomach the human-hater's politics, however pretty she looks in some photos.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
I voted for her? Talk about wasted vote...

[Jon Miller]

I am vegeterrian (And wish to be vegan), go Animal Rights!

JM

[notyoueither]

You support someone who would (presumably) ban use of animals in testing of products for human health?

[Imran Siddiqui]

I never pass up an opportunity to vote for Harry Potter... and the follow up picks of "Charlie's Angel" only seem to solidify that.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
I voted for her? Talk about wasted vote...

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by notyoueither
You support someone who would (presumably) ban use of animals in testing of products for human health?

I am almost 26 years old and have never been in a relationship, I will support (almost) anyone if I can meet girls.

JM