Ordinary Dutch unfairly depicted as 'angry citizens': Christian party leader

People are often unfairly depicted as "angry citizens", CDA leader Sybrand Buma said in the annual HJ Schoo lecture in Amsterdam on Monday. According to him, you can also call the angry citizen an ordinary, frustrated Dutch person who keeps running into walls, RTL Nieuws reports.

Buma knows what's going on in the heads of angry citizens who voted for PVV leader Geert Wilders, Donald Trump and the Brexit. "The job was given to an immigrant or Eastern European, education for the children has become too theoretical, and the coarsening of society comes through the television into the living room", he said.

The angry citizen doesn't want less recognizable traditions, less norms and values. "They want more", Buma said. "It is forgotten values that has to be brought back into the heart of politics." According to him, society can only progress in a sustainable way if shared traditions norms and values are cherished.

Populist parties like the PVV sees the "pain" of the angry citizen, but give no "fundamental answers", the CDA leader said. According to Buma, all they do is "fight symptoms without a coherent vision".

Buma believes that the answer lies in "our long Western European tradition", that does not prioritize individualism, but collective values. "That tradition does not place the man on a pedestal, but makes him more modest."