GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver believes that the government will opt for cooperation with the left-wing opposition in the new Senate. "The cabinet must choose: is it about the right or about the left? I assume it will opt for the Paris climate goals. That means that cooperation on the right is not an option", Klaver said, ANP reports.
Eerste Kamer
Mar 20 '19 23:00
Voter turnout was up substantially in the country's provincial election on Wednesday, compared with turnout in 2015. Some 57.9 percent of eligible voters showed up at polling places, up from 47.8 percent four years earlier, according to RTL Nieuws.
Mar 20 '19 21:19
The ruling coalition that forms the Cabinet in The Netherlands was projected to lose seven seats and its majority in the Eerste Kamer, the upper house of Dutch parliament. Eerste Kamer relative newcomer Forum voor Democratie (FvD), a nationalist right wing party, was projected to secure ten seats in the Dutch Senate, and left wing GroenLinks was expected to take eight seats. There are 75 seats in the chamber, with the coalition currently holding 38 for a razor thin majority.
Mar 20 '19 10:08
The shooting in Utrecht on Monday that cost the lives of three people and left three other seriously injured is influencing the voting behavior of people in the Provincial States election today, according to a poll by Maurice de Hond. People voting for right-wing, anti-Islam parties FvD and PVV in particular are now more determined to cast their votes on Wednesday, De Hond found.
Mar 1 '19 07:39
Almost a third of Dutch voters want to punish the Rutte III government for its policy during the Provincial States election on March 20th, according to the latest poll by research bureau I&O. A quarter of voters want to support the cabinet with his or her vote. And almost half said that they won't take into account whether or not the government coalition will get a majority in the Senate when they cast their vote, AD reports.
Feb 20 '19 14:10
Facebook will not be able to guarantee that the company is transparent about the placement of political advertisements before the provincial states elections next month, Minister Kasja Ollongren of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations wrote in a letter to parliament, NOS reports.
Jan 31 '19 15:20
The Dutch government wants airlines to share information about their passengers with the government in future. This data is necessary in the fight against "terrorism and serious crime", Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security said in a letter to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, AD reports.
Jan 22 '19 11:30
GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver is demanding that the coalition parties support his legislative proposal for a CO2 tax, in exchange for his party's support on new cabinet plans. "The question is not whether we will help the government to a majority, but whether the coalition will help our plans to a majority", he said at a meetup in The Hague on Monday evening, NOS reports.
Dec 17 '18 15:10
Prime Minister Mark Rutte kicked off the VVD's campaign for the Provincial States elections with an open letter published in multiple newspapers. In the letter, addressed to "all the ordinary normal people", Rutte calls on the Dutch to protect the Netherlands. Remarkably, the VVD is not mentioned once, AD reports.
Nov 6 '18 08:38
31 mayors of larger Dutch cities are calling on the Senate not to remove the appointment of mayors from the Dutch constitution, and to keep the procedure as is. Removing the appointment procedure from the constitution is the first step in enabling an elected mayor. The mayors are worried that this will result in them losing their connecting role as "father or mother for all residents, businesses and institutions", they wrote in an open letter to the Senate, the Volkskrant reports.
Oct 11 '18 16:20
Prime Minister Mark Rutte will investigate whether the burial chamber under the Eerste Kamer in The Hague can be opened to search for the remains of former statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, who was beheaded at the Binnenhof nearly 400 years ago. Rutte is responding to requests from Van Oldenbarnevelt's relatives and questions from SP parliamentarian Ronald van Raak, RTL Nieuws reports.
Sep 25 '18 13:20
VVD Senator Anne-Wil Duthler voted on a bill that her own company gave advice on, according to research platform Follow the Money. With that, Duthler acted unethically, experts said, NOS reports.
In 2013 the Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports asked Duthler's consultancy firm to advise on the text of the Social Support Act, which transferred the responsibility of a number of healthcare tasks to the municipalities. According to Follow the Money, a number of the consultancy firm's recommendations were included in the final bill.
Sep 21 '18 14:00
All but one of the opposition parties signed a GroenLinks legislative proposal to reverse the proposed abolition of dividend tax in 2020. With most of the opposition parties being against the controversial measure, it seems all but certain that the abolition of the dividend tax will play major roll in the Senate elections next year, NU.nl reports.
The legislative proposal was supported by 71 parliamentary seats - GroenLinks, PVV, SP, PvdA, PvdD, 50Plus, Denk and FvD. Only the SGP, 3 seats, did not sign it.
Aug 28 '18 18:04
A 26-year-old man was arrested in connection with threats made against anti-Islam nationalist political party PVV or the Dutch parliamentary building complex, police announced. The arrest was made at the central train station in Den Haag on Tuesday, a day after the alleged threats were reported to police.
Aug 15 '18 09:15
Members of the Eerste- and Tweede Kamer, the Dutch Senate and lower house of parliament, commemorated the victims of World War II who fell in the former Dutch East Indies. On Tuesday Kamer presidents Ankie Broekers-Knol and Kahdija Arib laid a wreath at the plaque for the victims in the Tweede Kamer building, ANP reports.
Jul 12 '18 11:30
The Eerste Kamer approved 12 proposals for municipal re-division. A total of 37 municipalities will be re-divided into 12 new municipalities, which means that from January 1st next year the Netherlands will have 355 municipalities, instead of 380, NU.nl reports.
Jul 11 '18 10:24
A narrow majority in the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate, voted in favor of abolishing the advisory referendum. Dutch parliament previously approved this measure, also with a narrow majority, and with that the referendum is officially scrapped.
In addition to the 38 senators of the four coalition parties, opposition party SGP also voted for scrapping the referendum, bringing the total votes to 40 senators for, 35 against, RTL Nieuws reports.
Jul 11 '18 09:05
New students to Dutch universities and universities of applied sciences will pay only half their tuition from the next academic year. The Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate, approved cutting the tuition fees in half for first year students. Students starting teacher training will pay half tuition in their first two years of study, ANP reports.
Jun 28 '18 11:20
After months of negotiations, the parliamentary factions of GroenLinks, PvdA, VVD, CDA, D66, ChristenUnie and SP have reached an agreement on a new Climate Act for the Netherlands, NU.nl reports.
The proposed law states that the Netherlands has to reduce its emissions by 49 percent in 2030 and 95 percent in 2050 compared to emission levels in 1990. By 2050 all energy in the Netherlands must be generated sustainably.
Jun 27 '18 16:10
A new law adopted by the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate, on Tuesday allows the Dutch police to hack suspects' devices like smartphones, laptops, security cameras and navigation systems. Previously only the intelligence services had that capability, RTL Nieuws reports.
A majority consisting of the VVD, PvdA, CDA, ChristenUnie and D66 voted for the law, officially called Computer Crime Act III. GroenLinks, SP, 50Plus, PvdD and PVV voted against. It will be implemented on January 1st next year. The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, approved the law in December.
Jun 13 '18 11:40
A majority in the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate, is in favor of a partial ban on wearing face-covering clothing. During a debate in the Senate, the VVD, CDA, PVV, ChristenUnie and SGP supported a legislative proposal for such a ban. The D66, SP, PvdA and GroenLinks are against it, NOS reports.
Apr 3 '18 07:30
Between six and 10 Dutch municipalities will experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation and sale, according to a bill sent to the police, the Public Prosecutor and the Association of Dutch municipalities, among others, the Volkskrant reports.
The experiment will last for five years and two months, one year of which will be used on preparation. Cannabis cultivators will be recruited through a tender. For the period of the experiment, they will only be allowed to grow weed for the experiment, and not for other sales.
Feb 13 '18 18:08
The Dutch Senate voted in favor of a new law that automatically makes every adult living in the Netherlands an organ donor. Adults will have to explicitly opt-out of being a donor if they do not wish to participate in the life saving medical procedure.
Feb 8 '18 14:00
Marleen Barth, PvdA leader in the Eerste Kamer, announced her resignation on Thursday. She decided to step down because she no longer wants to burden the PvdA with negative publicity about her, she said, according to RTL Nieuws.
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