On Thursday the court in Amsterdam gave sentences of up to 80 hours of community service and fines up to 450 euros for incitement, threats, insult and discrimination against politician Sylvana Simons. The judge said that with the sentences the court wants to make clear that crossing the boundaries of freedom of expression has consequences, NU.nl report.
Denk
May 18 '17 13:30
Apr 27 '17 14:30
Dutch King Willem-Alexander turns 50 years old today. A number of political party leaders took a moment to wish him a happy birthday. "It only gets better [after 50]", CDA leader Sybrand Buma said to RTL Nieuws.
"I would like to congratulate him on his 50th birthday. And everyone around him too, of course", SGP leader Kees van der Staaij said to the broadcaster. "I want to wish him a lot of wisdom. For what can a king use better than wisdom? I especially hope that he stays who he is."
Mar 16 '17 10:06
The PvdA also lost a lot of support in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague during this election. GroenLinks performed very well in Amsterdam. And in Rotterdam and The Hague new party DENK scored better than the labor party, according to NOS.
Mar 13 '17 09:29
DENK is pressuring mosque leaders to urge their congregations to vote for the party, according to the council of Moroccan mosques in the Netherlands RMMN. Multiple mosque leaders have complained about undue pressure from the political party, NOS reports.
"Mosque leaders are free to give political parties a platform if they want and there is nothing wrong with that", RMMN spokesperson Said Bouharrou said to the broadcaster. "But you cross a line if you, like DENK, indicate that you have to vote right, otherwise you are a traitor."
Mar 13 '17 09:04
A quarter of Dutch believe that if a woman dresses sexy, she should not complain when she hears sexual comments, according to a survey by research firm Ipsos on behalf of Rutgers, a knowledge center on sexuality. And 13 percent believe that girls who wear short skirts should not complain when they are harassed, AD reports.
Mar 1 '17 09:09
While it does not seem that the first televised election debate on RTL on Sunday had much affect on the polls, Maurice de Hond's latest poll does show left-leaning parties CDA and PvdA each gaining slightly more support and going up one seat. Right-wing PVV's support continues to dwindle slowly. Elderly party 50Plus took quite a blow this past week, losing almost half of its support.
Feb 23 '17 15:55
Statements by DENK leader Tunahan Kuzu suggesting that elderly people with an immigration background are discriminated against in the Dutch healthcare system, led to disbelief and outrage among medical practitioners in the Netherlands. "This clearly fits into the election campaign", Rene Heman, chairman of Dutch doctors federation KNMG, said to newspaper AD.
Feb 23 '17 10:30
DENK leader Tunahan Kuzu accused Dutch doctors of discriminating against people with a non-Western background. In a live stream on Facebook Kuzu said on Wednesday that the Dutch healthcare system is quicker to pull the plug on elderly immigrants, AD reports.
According to Kuzu, he heard this from a number of medical specialists. "These doctors have seen that the plug is pulled more quickly in older people with an immigrant background than in people without this background", the Dutch-Turkish politician said.
Feb 16 '17 13:35
Voters will have quite a selection to choose from in the parliamentary elections next month when it comes to picking a political party based on the financial and economic choices, according to calculations by Dutch central planning office CPB. A major difference between this and last election is that the parties are focused on spending money now that the economy is recovering, instead of the 2012 election's focus on cutbacks in the aftermath of the financial crisis, NU.nl reports.
Feb 6 '17 09:48
Traditionally the Dutch labor party PvdA could count on most of the votes from minorities living in the Netherlands, but that no longer seems to be the matter of course, according to a unique survey by EtnoBarometer. Many voters with immigrant backgrounds will instead vote for new party DENK in this election. And the PVV is surprisingly popular among Dutch-Surinamese voters, being the second most popular party in this population group, AD reports.
The survey was done by market researcher Aziz El Kaddouri among 1792 ethnic minority voters.
Feb 3 '17 13:10
A total of 20 people will be prosecuted for threatening, insulting and/or discriminating against politician Sylvana Simons, chief prosecutor Theo Hofstee said to NPO Radio 1 on Friday. That's doulbe the initial number of suspects the prosecutor announced in December, NU.nl reports.
Feb 2 '17 07:56
Thousands of people gathered on the Malieveld in The Hague on Wednesday afternoon for a Holland against Hate demonstration against American president Donald Trump. The initiators want the protest to show that the Netherlands is against Trump's "xenophobic policy" of closing the United States borders to people from seven Muslim countries. They also hope to convince the Dutch government to send the same signal.
Feb 1 '17 11:45
Small Christian party SGP created an anti-Islam manifesto with plans to set limits to the presence of Islam in the Netherlands and to protect the Netherlands against the "radical excesses" of this belief. According to the party, many Dutch are right to worry about the rise of Islam in the country, NOS reports.
Dec 29 '16 08:54
Sylviana Simons' new political party Artikel 1 was founded weeks before she announced that she was leaving political party DENK, the Telegraaf reports based on documents from the Chamber of Commerce.
Simons managed to keep her plans for resigning from DENK secret, while establishing her new party in time for the elections, by registering the new party on the name of cultural activists Bram Verhappen and Reguillo Wijngaarde, instead of her own, according to the newspaper.
Dec 26 '16 17:45
Sylvana Simons left political party DENK and is starting her own party called Artikel 1. According to her, DENK did not support her enough after she was threatened and she can not agree with the style of the party, she said in interviews with the style of the party, she said in interviews with NOS and the Volkskrant.
Dec 26 '16 08:11
The Public Prosecutor is paying extra attention to discrimination on social media with the elections coming up on March 15th, chief prosecutor Theo Hofstee said in an interview with AT5. He wants quick action if someone is insulted or discriminated against.
Dec 22 '16 10:59
The Public Prosecutor is prosecuting at least 10 people for discriminating against, threatening or insulting politician Sylvana Simons, a spokesperson confirmed to NU.nl. Some are also being prosecuted for sedition.
Dec 16 '16 15:35
Farid Azarkan, parliamentarian for pro-diversity party DENK, filed a report of threats made against him with the police, his party announced. According to DENK, the threat was made on a private Facebook group and the word "assassination" was used, RTL Nieuws reports.
Dec 12 '16 13:45
A 65-year-old man was found guilty of threatening DENK parliamentarian Tunahan Kuzu on Facebook and sentenced to 60 hours of community service by the court in The Hague on Monday. Half of the sentence is conditionally suspended, ANP reports.
Dec 7 '16 08:25
A majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, voted against a proposal to ban foreign financing for Dutch political parties. The proposal was rejected by right-wing parties VVD, PVV and VNL and Christian parties CDA, ChristenUnie and SGP, NU.nl reports.
Dec 1 '16 11:15
Ban foreign funding for political parties in the Netherlands, DENK parliamentarian Selcuk Ozturk proposed on Wednesday. According to him, this is the most effective way to make sure Dutch politicians aren't influenced by foreign sources, Nederlands Dagblad reports
"Of the PVV is known that there are lines with financiers from the U.S." Ozturk said in a statement. "In that manner the PVV is possibly the long arm of foreign interest groups. Also with the Ukraine referendum there was possible foreign interference."
Nov 28 '16 08:32
The PvdA was complicit in normalizing racism and discrimination over the past 20 years, candidate MP for DENK Sylvana Simons said in the Amsterdam debate center De Balie in an interview with Wilfred Genee on Sunday. In a reaction PvdA leader Diederik Samsom called these accusations "absurd", NU.nl reports.
Nov 24 '16 08:32
A majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, voted for a government proposal that bans the wear of face-covering clothing in certain public spaces. If you do not complain with this "burka ban", you risk a fine of 450 euros, NU.nl reports.
Nov 23 '16 08:36
A 37-year-old man from Kudelstaart was arrested on suspicion of making and posting a threatening video online about politician Sylvana Simons. The man turned himself in at a police station on Tuesday and he is being questioned, the Amsterdam police announced.
In the video Simons, who is a candidate parliamentarian for new party DENK, is portrayed as the victim of a racist lynching. Her face was photoshopped onto the bodies of lynched black Americans.
