Half of political parties' election campaigns against Dutch constitution: report

Almost half of Dutch political parties' campaigns for the parliamentary elections contain proposals that are diametrically opposed to the current constitution or rule of law, according to a study by a committee of professors. There were proposals that violate fundamental human rights, access to an independent court and legal security, among other things, ANP reports.

The study was commissioned by the Dutch Bar Association. The committee studied 13 political campaigns and assessed their impact on the rule of law. The campaigns studied are those of the 13 parties who had two or more seats in parliament in December 2016.

According to the professors, virtually all campaigns include at least one measure that could weaken the rule of law. And five of the 13 propose measures that go against the constitution, rule of law and democracy. For example, the CDA has a proposal to ban foreign funding to mosques, the VNL plans to revoke the Dutch nationality of criminals with dual nationalities, the PVV wants to ban immigrants from Islamic countries and the VVD wants to revoke the nationality of people involved in terrorist organizations.

These proposals violate human rings or openly discriminate against certain groups of citizens, according to the committee. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the PVV campaign contain the most proposals that are in violation of international treaties, undermine the rule of law or are in conflict with current Dutch rules.

The committee also studied campaigns of the previous parliamentary elections in 2012 for comparison. They concluded that this year has "significantly more" proposals that violate current rights and freedoms. In 2012 two of the 10 examined campaigns did so, this year it's five out of 13.