The Dutch government will not take any concrete measures to help Air France-KLM cope with the unrest on the French side of the airline, Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Hugo de Jonge both said, in different words, on Wednesday, NU.nl reports.
Air France employees are striking for a 5 percent wage increase. The strikes cost Air France 75 million euros so far, and resulted in the resignation of Air France-KLM's CEO last week.
Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security, Deputy Prime Minister Carola Schouten and acting Amsterdam mayor Jozias van Aartsen attended a Hanukkah celebration on Scheldeplein in Amsterdam's Rivierenbuurt on Sunday evening.
Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher called on Turkey to retract its accusations of Nazism and fascism against the Netherlands. If the country does not do so, the relationship between the Netherlands and Turkey will remain difficult, Asscher said, according to RTL Nieuws.
Asscher added that the Dutch government will not take any measures against the Ankara government, even if they refuse to retract the statements. According to him, it is important that calm returns. But "a different form of communication must come from Turkey", he said.
Opposition parties and even coalition party PvdA have nothing but criticism for current Prime Minister and VVD leader Mark Rutte's "if you don't like it here, then get out" election campaign. PvdA leader and current Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher called Rutte a poor substitute for a populist and accused him of sowing cynicism, while people who are dissatisfied should in fact work to improve the situation, NOS reports.
Out of fear of being eavesdropped on, Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher did not dare to call Prime Minister Mark Rutte from his cellphone after flight MH17 was shot down in July 2014, Asscher said on television program Jinek.
The Deputy Prime Minister was on holiday in France at the time. Instead of calling the Prime Minister from his mobile phone, he knocked on the door of a neighbor and asked if he could use her landline. "I had to talk to the Prime Minster in The Hague. That you don't do with your mobile. These discussioins might be of interest to Russians or others."
If Diederik Samsom is again elected leader of the PvdA, then the party will have no signficant role in the forming of the new cabinet, Deputy Prime Minister and PvdA leader candidate Lodewijk Asscher said during the first PvdA leader debate in The Hague on Monday. According to him, should leadership of the PvdA not change, PVV leader Geert Wilders and VVD leader Mark RUtte will call the shots, NU.nl reports.
Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher will only make a decision on whether or not he will stay in politics after next year's elections in October, he said in an interview with NU.nl on Friday.
A large delegation of the Dutch cabinet will be attending a gathering at the Belgian embassy in The Hague on Wednesday afternoon to commemorate the bombings in Brussels on Tuesday. Prime Minister Mark Rutte will give a speech.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs and Employment decided to address the people sending him antisemitic, racist and insulting comments on social media. In a long Facebook post he answered several of them by name.
Amsterdam plans to launch a trial run in screening refugees on their abilities and so helping them find work or continue their education in the city more quickly. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs Lodewijk Asscher sees merit in this trial and promised financial support in a letter to Economic Affairs alderman Kajsa Ollongren on Tuesday
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs Lodewijk Asscher is facing criticism from the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament. The VVD, who is leading the attack, accused him of selling tall tales, with too little results, especially on unemployment.
Lodewijk Asscher, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, has set aside 14 million euros over the next two years to help unemployed young people find work by putting them in direct contact with employers. The aim is to get 23 thousand young people off of benefits and into paid jobs within the next two years.
Minister Lodewijk Asscher of Social Affairs wants to break through the taboo of people suffering of cancer and working regular jobs. The Minister will launch an investigation into a possible test with a so-called no-risk policy, in which employers can hire someone with cancer and work harder at reintegration without any financial risk
Childcare organizations need to focus more on the development of children and babies. Both the quality of childcare staff and the care of infants must improve, Minister Lodewijk Asscher of Social Affairs wrote to the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, on Tuesday.
The Eurogroup did not manage to reach an agreement with Greece on the last part of the current lending program which expires at the end of this month. The Greek government has broken off the negotiations. Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher calls the situation "extremely troublesome".
Minister Lodewijk Asscher of Social Affairs defended his jobs plan to growing doubt on its success during a parliamentary debate in the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament. "It is more than just an emergency measure", he said. "The goal is to emerge stronger from the crisis."
Minister Lodewijk Asscher of Social Affairs is outraged that VNO-NCW boss Hans de Boer called the unemployed "highly educated, lazy, disinterested weaklings". "Cussing at the unemployed end being proud of it. These times call for an outstretched hand instead of a middle finger." the Deputy Prime Minister said.
More than 25 percent of people in the Netherlands are bullied by colleagues or supervisors. A total of 500 thousand people were harassed in the workplace last year. On Sunday Minister Lodewijk Asscher of Social Affairs launched a campaign to address this problem.
The Public Prosecutor in Amsterdam has decided not to prosecute the 26-year old man suspected of insulting the King and the Queen during Zwarte Piet demonstrations by saying "fuck the king, fuck the queen and fuck the royal palace," the Public Prosecutor (OM) declared on Thursday. The Prosecution determined the statement was made "within the context of public debate," which means that relevant statements are not punishable.
The top of the coalition government met again around 21:30 on Wednesday night to discuss the reception of failed asylum seekers. This meeting happened after internal consultations in both the VVD and PvdA.
The Netherlands has breached the European Union rules on the reception of asylum seekers, such as access for food, clothing and shelter, for undocumented adults, the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) states. A Council of Europe human rights committee must now decide whether or not it will take action against the Netherlands based on the harshly critical ECSR report, unless conditions of asylum seekers quickly improve.
Investigators and salvage crews are returning to the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash site again next week in Eastern Ukraine to ensure the recovery of the last human remains, personal belongings of the victims and fragments of the plane, Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher announced on Friday. For the first time, the team can access the northwest area of the crash site where they could not work until now for safety reasons caused by the ongoing battle between the Ukraine and Russian-backed separatist forces, Asscher said after the cabinet meeting.
According to Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher, equality does not mean equal opportunities for everyone in the Dutch society, because the Constitution does not protect against prejudice and unconscious racism. He said this during the 7th Martin Luther King jr. reading in The Hague on Thursday.
Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher believes that the government must work harder to stop discrimination in the job market. He said this in an interview with NU, talking about the unemployment rate of ethnic minorities and his plans in the fight against youth unemployment.
