The Netherlands is set to get its first openly gay prime minister, Rob Jetten, following strong results in the country's recent election, which saw his party gain 17 seats, and Geert Wilders' far-right party lose 11.
The leader of the modern Dutch Far-Right some years ago, when it really took of, was very openly gay.
I suspect that you’re from a society where sexuality and sexual orientation are massively affected by Moralism and heavilly politicized - in other words treated as heavy and important subjects aligned with certain political forces - which is totally different from many other countries, most notably The Netherlands were they just treat all sexual orientations as just normal (which is why Dutch Far-Right muppets couldn’t care less that their leader was gay).
All this to say that your reading about the sexual orientation of a countries top politicians and what it says for populist politics, doesn’t at all apply outside very specific societies with wierd political takes on such subjects.
I get what you’re implying, but no it’s not a big deal here in Canada either. I was just optimistic to see a stalwart alt-right staple party like Wilders’ PVV suffer a quite significant election defeat.
Number of gay PMs in the Netherlands = 0 too. This guy hasn’t been sworn in yet.
PP was mostly trans bashing by the way, but my point is that I don’t recall the sexuality of candidates being a relevant thing in elections here.
Also, “We don’t elect women?” that’s just downright incorrect - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_first_ministers_in_Canada
More in general it’s a good thing that the era of rightwing cohalitions governing the country, which lasted almost 2 decades, seems to be finally over, as the other parties of the governing cohalition have all lost votes.
The Netherlands has actually been quite a neoliberal country for a while now, with steadilly degrading public services (still Scandinavia-style personal taxes but ever more American style public services) and one of the worse realestate bubbles in Europe.
Hopefully this is a change in direction back towards traditional social democrat ideals and away from deregulation, trickle-down delusions and even support for the modern version of the Nazis (the Zionists).
I have heard some concerning stuff coming out of the Netherlands for a while, yes. Especially the gradual erosion of the social safety net they erected back in the 60s and the privatization of core parts of the country’s public infrastructure. I’ll share in your hope that this may see a reversal, or at the very least a stay under whatever new government results from these elections.
Funny you mention Scandinavian levels of taxation by the way - when I lived in the Netherlands for a few years I paid significantly more income tax than I did in Sweden. Not sure how progressive the tax system still is in the Netherlands, but it felt like all but folks on income assistance were taxed similarly.
The leader of the modern Dutch Far-Right some years ago, when it really took of, was very openly gay.
I suspect that you’re from a society where sexuality and sexual orientation are massively affected by Moralism and heavilly politicized - in other words treated as heavy and important subjects aligned with certain political forces - which is totally different from many other countries, most notably The Netherlands were they just treat all sexual orientations as just normal (which is why Dutch Far-Right muppets couldn’t care less that their leader was gay).
All this to say that your reading about the sexual orientation of a countries top politicians and what it says for populist politics, doesn’t at all apply outside very specific societies with wierd political takes on such subjects.
I get what you’re implying, but no it’s not a big deal here in Canada either. I was just optimistic to see a stalwart alt-right staple party like Wilders’ PVV suffer a quite significant election defeat.
Number of gay PM’s in Canada = 0, we don’t even elect women. Poilievre was up 30 points while gay bashing.
Number of gay PMs in the Netherlands = 0 too. This guy hasn’t been sworn in yet. PP was mostly trans bashing by the way, but my point is that I don’t recall the sexuality of candidates being a relevant thing in elections here. Also, “We don’t elect women?” that’s just downright incorrect - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_first_ministers_in_Canada
I totally agree that that’s a good thing.
More in general it’s a good thing that the era of rightwing cohalitions governing the country, which lasted almost 2 decades, seems to be finally over, as the other parties of the governing cohalition have all lost votes.
The Netherlands has actually been quite a neoliberal country for a while now, with steadilly degrading public services (still Scandinavia-style personal taxes but ever more American style public services) and one of the worse realestate bubbles in Europe.
Hopefully this is a change in direction back towards traditional social democrat ideals and away from deregulation, trickle-down delusions and even support for the modern version of the Nazis (the Zionists).
I have heard some concerning stuff coming out of the Netherlands for a while, yes. Especially the gradual erosion of the social safety net they erected back in the 60s and the privatization of core parts of the country’s public infrastructure. I’ll share in your hope that this may see a reversal, or at the very least a stay under whatever new government results from these elections.
Funny you mention Scandinavian levels of taxation by the way - when I lived in the Netherlands for a few years I paid significantly more income tax than I did in Sweden. Not sure how progressive the tax system still is in the Netherlands, but it felt like all but folks on income assistance were taxed similarly.