Michiel 2005's photos with the keyword: nrc handelsblad

The second purple cabinet was created after the elections in 1998. It consisted of three parties: the socialists, right-wing liberals and left-wing liberals. The left-wing liberals with 14 seats in parliament weren't necessary for a majority, but they were included anyway because they were part of the first purple cabinet. They wanted a constitutional change to allow referenda. During the first stage of the constitional change a bill has to pass both houses of parliament with a simple majority. The second stage requires an two-thirds majority of both houses. Senator Wiegel, seen here in the picture, old popular liberal leader and deputy prime minister in the 1970s, voted against the second reading and caused the bill to fail, even though his party in the lower house committed itself to the change. The left-wing liberal party withdrew its support of the cabinet, threatened to withdraw its ministers too, and the cabinet was forced to offer its resignation. The row was settled and the second purple cabinet stumbled on for another three years.

The purple cabinet in 1994 was the first cabinet since 1918 without the christian democrats. It was called purple, because it was a cabinet with the socialists (red) and liberals (blue) mix the two of them together, and you have purple. The christian democrats lost heavily in the 1994 elections; their new leader Brinkman wasn't popular with the voters. They were also considered arrogant. On the picture you can see the liberal leader Dijkstal, wearing a double-breasted suit. He was to become deputy prime minister. Hopes were high at the start of the purple cabinet, but it ended with the chaos after the murder of Fortuyn some eight years later.

Dutch politics could be explained to foreigners by saying that there was a socialist party, who wanted to increase the top rate of tax to 80% of income; a liberal party who wanted to lower the taxes to 78% of income and a party who were against the French Revolution. Things have changed a bit: the party who were against the French Revolution merged with the catholic party to become christian democrats. In the early 1990s the liberals and the socialists formed a government together, because they were fed up with the christian democrats. The christian democrats (or the seperate christian parties) positioned themselves in the middle of Dutch politics and were part of every government since times immemorial, choosing between the liberals and the socialists depending on their mood and the election result. The liberals and the socialists are on the opposite sides of the Dutch political spectrum (at least in the 1990s) so it was quite a strange coalition. In order to make this coalition possible, some things had to happen. More in particular, a leadership crises (the old one, mr. Ruud Lubbers of UN fame, didn't like the new one, mr. Elco Brinkman. In the end, the Dutch didn't like Brinkman too) in the christian democratic party and several general scandals. This is the newspaper about the result of the local elections, just prior to the national elections. That gave enough indication that it the people didn't like the christian democrats and the socialists.

Dutch politics could be explained to foreigners by saying that there was a socialist party, who wanted to increase the top rate of tax to 80% of income; a liberal party who wanted to lower the taxes to 78% of income and a party who were against the French Revolution. Things have changed a bit: the party who were against the French Revolution merged with the catholic party to become christian democrats. In the early 1990s the liberals and the socialists formed a government together, because they were fed up with the christian democrats. The christian democrats (or the seperate christian parties) positioned themselves in the middle of Dutch politics and were part of every government since times immemorial, choosing between the liberals and the socialists depending on their mood and the election result. The liberals and the socialists are on the opposite sides of the Dutch political spectrum (at least in the 1990s) so it was quite a strange coalition. In order to make this coalition possible, some things had to happen. More in particular, a leadership crises (the old one, mr. Ruud Lubbers of UN fame, didn't like the new one, mr. Elco Brinkman. In the end, the Dutch didn't like Brinkman too) in the christian democratic party and several general scandals. This newspaper is about the election results of the national elections. Enormous defeat for the christian democrats and socialist government.

I didn't have a television at that time, so I didn't see Michael Portillo losing his seat. I listened to the radio, and I remember one commentator saying: "This is the biggest loss for the Tories since...since...since...the Duke of Wellington". I'm not a great fan of socialists, but it was a breath of fresh air after the scandal-ridden Tories. And I always liked Tony Blair's eloquence. Soon after Labour came to power the BBC made a documentary about Robin Cook, who became Foreign Secretary. He removed a portrait of an Indian prince from the Foreign Office building because it was "to politically incorrect". No sense of history these socialists.

Geoffrey Howe fought with Margaret Thatcher over Europe. Howe wanted a closer union, integrating the Pound Sterling into the Exchange Rate Mechanism, while Thatcher remained largely opposed and suspicious of Europe. In the end Howe resigned and he made an absolute marvellous resignation speech in the Commons, probably the only speech worth remembering of this politician who was known as "Mogadon Man". The Labour politician Dennis Healey once described debating with Howe " like being savaged by a dead sheep ". Hansard has the complete speech . I remember seeing the resignation speech live on the BBC and I was flabbergasted for the second time. The first time was when I saw the Commons for the first time. It was Sir Ian Gow, a Conservative MP, later murdered by the IRA, who held the traditional backbencher's speech after the Queen's Speech. Thatcher was right about Europe though.

I could not remember there being a different Prime Minister other then mrs. Thatcher, because she became the PM when I was nine. In the end it had all turned a bit sour, she thought she was the Supreme Ruler of the Universe and she had few friends. Geoffrey Howe wielded the knife, Michael Heseltine moved in for the kill, but John Major succesfully climbed the greasy pole. Ah.. the Major years, where every week another minister was found wearing women's clothing or was discovered to be spending time with total strangers in the harbour.

The murder of Fortuyn was the first political murder in the Netherlands since 1672 (if you don't count Anton Mussert and his henchmen who were executed after World War II for collaborating with the Germans). He was murdered by Volkert van der Graaf, a left-wing nature lover. Dutch politics hasn't recovered yet.

Princesses or queens dying in car crashes isn't that unusual: In 1935 Queen Astrid of Belgium died in Küssnacht (Switzerland) and in 1982 Grace, Princess of Monaco died in Monaco. All these deaths caused a lot of emotions.