Groenlinks

Four political parties have teamed up on a proposal to reduce the highway speed limit in Den Haag to 80 kilometers per hour. The parties, including the city’s governing coalition members GroenLinks and D66, have also called for a ban on older diesel vehicles and an expansion of the city’s environmental zones.

The rule changes also have the backing of the animal rights party PvdD and the Christian party bloc CU/SGP. Together the four groups represent 20 of the city’s 45 council seats.

The PvdA also wants to get rid of the student loan system and reintroduce the basic study grant, joining the call of Coalitie-Y - an initiative of the ChristenUnie and youth organization who want to take measures to give more certainty to the next generation of young people. A vast majority in parliament now supports this plan, NU.nl reports.

Every year hundreds of Dutch children are left abroad by their parents. With the summer vacation around the corner, a majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, is calling on the government to make it punishable to leave your children in a foreign country, RTL Nieuws reports.

After several rounds of voting, senators in the Netherlands selected Professor Jan Anthonie Bruijn as the new chairperson of the Eerste Kamer, the upper house of Dutch parliament. The 61-year-old professor of immunopathology at Leiden University has been involved in politics as a VVD member since 1989 when he first became a local VVD board member in hometown of Wassenaar, Zuid-Holland.

Bruijn takes the reins from VVD politican Ankie Broekers-Knol. She was tapped as justice and security secretary last month.

Jorrit Nuijens (GroenLinks) resigned as alderman of Diemen on Friday after his arrest in Amsterdam on Thursday, GroenLinks Diemen announced. The 39-year-old man was arrested for disrupting public order on Waterlooplein, in front of Amsterdam's city hall. The police later found a small bottle of what they believe is GHB on the alderman, according to newspaper AD.

The Amsterdam police drew up a "Plan of Action" to reduce ethnic profiling in the Dutch capital. The plan will be discussed in the Amsterdam city council on Thursday evening, but is already being criticized by the D66 and GroenLinks, Het Parool reports.

Minister Wouter Koolmees of Social Affairs and Employment reached an agreement in principle on a new pension system with employers and employees. On Wednesday, the trade unions and other involved parties will present this agreement to their members to vote on it, NU.nl reports.

The government's plan to increase interest rates on student loans will almost certainly fail in the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate. Former VVD Senator Anne-Wil Duthler is increasingly critical of the plan, and support from the D66 also seems to be crumbling, NOS reports. The student loan system is also causing friction within GroenLinks. 

Prime Minister Mark Rutte delayed the publication of the planning offices' climate agreement calculations until after Budget Day, because he thought a debate about the climate would be "undesirable" at this point, Nieuwsuur reports based on documents it received by appealing to the Government Information Act. Opposition parties in parliament are outraged and want a quick explanation from Rutte about the pressure he exerted on the planning offices to delay this publication, NOS reports.

Almost all the votes in the European Parliament elections have been counted. As exit polls predicted, the PvdA is the big winner in the Netherlands. While the exit polls said Labour would get five seats, the party now stands at six. Populist PVV and socialists SP walk away with no seats, RTL Nieuws reports. 

FvD leader Thierry Baudet is facing criticism from other party leaders over a video he posted on Twitter. The video features women telling how they were sexually assaulted or raped by migrants and blaming politicians who "refuse to protect our borders", showing photos of GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver, VVD leader Mark Rutte and D66 leader Rob Jetten at the end.