CDA leader backing D66 in Europe election

Former head of Rabobank, and architect of the Balkenende IV Cabinet Herman Wijffels, is disassociating himself from CDA's party line, and voting instead for the D66 at the European elections. He tells the BNR that he can no longer find himself in the CDA. Wijffels is still a CDA member, but that does not mean he agrees with the party on every ticket. "The CDA has drifted off to a rightist conservative party. That's why it has become less relevant with ideas for the future of the country", he says. "In the space that has been made free in Dutch politics by the CDA, there is now D66." The tells the BNR that he is more confident in the D66, who say "clear and simple: we live in a world that is entirely bound to each other." Wijffels doesn't say that his vote lies with the D66 in so many words, but he does say he is edging towards the Wijffels' unauthorized biography will be on the stands this week, called The Assignment (De Opdracht). It tells of his relationship with ex-Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. "I think that Jan Peter saw his Prime Ministerial duties very purely and honestly from within his Christian beliefs as an assignment. He did it to the best of is abilities. I think that he served very anxiously and was therefore very busy to keep everything under control." Wijffels, now a professor in sustainability and social change at the University of Utrecht also commented on the disappointing CBS statistics about the economic slump. He expected the figures, he says, and doesn't think they will improve very quickly. "I found the euphoria of 'the crisis is over' the last few weeks exaggerated", he tells BNR. he believes that recovery will take a long time still, and that it will fluctuate. "We are with seven billion people. And with our current way of life, producing and consuming we don't take care of this planet anymore. So if there is growth, then we need that to pay for the higher commodity prices."