A Facebook post by Dutch broadcaster RTL Nieuws about politician Sylvana Simons looking for a new name for her multicultural political party, led to so many "negative and racist responses" that the broadcaster decided to remove the post.
Sylvana Simons
Jun 28 '17 14:00
Apr 13 '17 09:58
The Public Prosecutor demanded varying lengths of community service against five men accused of threatening politician Sylvana Simons.
Apr 12 '17 10:40
A total of 22 suspects will appear in the court in Amsterdam this week for threatening politician Sylvana Simons. The first six cases will appear on Wednesday, the other 16 on Thursday. Simons intends to attend the trial, Het Parool reports.
Mar 20 '17 12:00
The attempted coup in Turkey last year led to a significant increase of discrimination based on political affiliation reports in the Netherlands, according to the Dutch national association against discrimination LVD. Last year the association received 151 reports of discrimination based on political affiliation, compared to only 14 such reports in 2015. Most of these reports came from Turkish-Dutch, NOS reports.
Mar 7 '17 08:42
Bram Verhappen resigned as chairman of Sylvana Simons' political party Artikel 1 last month, NOS discovered in a document from the Chamber of Commerce.
Verhappen was chairman of the party, which promises equal rights to voters, for a matter of months. The party was launched in December last year. It is unclear why he resigned. Artikel 1 would not comment on the news, according to newspaper AD.
Secretary and treasurer Reguillo Wijngaarde took over Verhappen's duties, according to the document.
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.
Jan 27 '17 12:00
Some 100 people gathered on the Bijlmerplein in Amsterdam Zuidoost on Thursday night to protest against the arrest of a 12-year-old boy on the square earlier this week. Activist Jeffrey Afriyie and politician Sylvana Simons were among the protesters. "Let this be the last tie we deliver our children to people that would rather lock them up than bring them up." Afriyie said speaking at the protest, AD reports.
Jan 17 '17 12:25
Sylvana Simons announced the candidates for her new political party Artikel 1. The top three on the list are women, headed by Simons herself. The party promises to promote equality and combat discrimination, Simons said when announcing the candidate list to broadcaster RTL.
Dec 29 '16 17:45
Former DENK politician Sylvana Simons plans to advocate for fair hiring practices and against discrimination, not only based on race but also on sexual orientation, in her new party Artikel 1, she said in an interview with EenVandaag on Tuesday.
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.
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 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.
Nov 21 '16 10:09
The Hague city councilor Fatima Faid is filing a report with the Discrimination Office over a video made to the song "Oh Sylvana" by carnival singer Rob van Daal and posted online. The video, and several others like it, makes fun of and insults DENK politician Sylvana Simons, Omroep Brabant reports.
The song "Oh Sylvana" also strongly seems too be be about the politician, though singer Rob van Daal denies this.
Oct 26 '16 11:00
DENK politician Sylvana Simons thinks that football analyst Johan Derksen should attend a discrimination course so he can realize the effect his comments have. In an open letter she addresses comments Derksen made on Voetbal Inside on Monday comparing her to a monkey.
Oct 25 '16 12:15
Football analyst Johan Derksen compared DENK politician Sylvana Simons to a monkey during a broadcast of Voetbal Inside on Monday night. While talking about RTL's decision to replace blackface Zwarte Piet with so-called Chimney Piet, he said that the only downside is that "hysterical miss Simons will run through the country as proud as a monkey", AD reports.
Jul 11 '16 08:30
Some 400 people gathered on Amsterdam's Dam Square on Sunday afternoon for a peaceful protest titled Black Lives Matter. The demonstration was in protest against police violence in the United States, where two black Americans were killed by police bullets last week, but also to draw attention to Dutch victims of police brutality,
Jun 23 '16 09:50
Sylvana Simons, the newest member of political party DENK, filed charges of racism with the police in The Hague. A video the party posted on their website shows Simons and party leader Tunahan Kuzu walking into the police station with a thick stack of papers.
May 31 '16 15:30
Sylvana Simons is pressing charges against "the deluge of racist, sexist and discriminatory comments" directed at her after she joined political party DENK, she said in a statement the party released on Tuesday. By pressing charges, she wants to make clear that something "demonstrably wrong may never go unpunished" and that "fighting injustice begins with reporting it".
