One of the earliest and predictably most enthusiastic foreign Trump supporters was Dutch Islamaphobe and neo-fascist leader Geert Wilders, whose assault on the Dutch political system we've been covering for years. Less than 2 weeks ago, we warned that Wilders is certainly another destructive right-wing nationalist being helped into power by Putin, who sees the end of NATO and the EU dangling before his eyes now. I asked an old friend and journalist, David de Jong-- who you may remember from his writing for Bloomberg and his guest posts here at DWT-- to give us a quick assessment of how the two establishment parties' austerity agenda has impacted Holland... and made further political incursions by Wilders likely and soon. TheDutch national elections are in March. Below is a thumbnail look at how Holland has been faring under the coalition of the two useless establishment parties vaguely equivalent to the Republicans and the Democrats. David de Jong:
The Dutch economy, the sixth-largest economy in the eurozone, was hit hard in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis: numerous banks and insurers received billion-euro taxpayer-funded bail outs, and two banks were even completely nationalized. In the period 2009 through 2013 gross domestic product shrunk by almost 2 percent, the unemployment rate reached a peak of 8.5 percent in 2013 and median house prices fell by more than 20 percent.In response to the economic downturn, the Dutch cabinet, which is made up out of a coalition of the Conservative and Labor Party and led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, started implementing austerity measures in 2011. The measures run through 2017 and could total almost 50 billion euros (equivalent to about seven percent of annual GDP). They consist of budget cuts, accelerating infrastructure programs, offering corporate tax breaks for employers, expanding export credit and privatizing parts of health care and social housing.The budget cuts target the most vulnerable, and arguably the most necessary, sectors of society: health care, social security, arts & culture and education. While people's actual income declined in the period through 2014, user fees for prescribed treatments and medication rose. This is partly stoked through the growing global costs of pharmaceuticals and caring for a rapidly aging populous, but rising insurance fees and privatization of several hospitals and specialists. In a country where the cost of health care used to be a relatively low and where universal health care is mandated by law, many people are struggling to pay their medical bills.< Another example is social housing. About 60 percent of houses on Amsterdam's famed canals were made up out of social housing. The privatization measures of the Dutch government and local municipality have more than halved the number of houses classified for social housing in recent years. When a person leaves social housing, it now often goes on the private market, renting for ten or twenty times its initial rent, or being sold to the highest bidder.While the Dutch economy has strengthened significantly in the past two years, and is forecast to grow stronger in the years to come, the poor, weak and young do not stand to benefit. The conservative VVD and nationalist PVV parties are currently forecast to become the two largest parties in the March 2017 general election, and may form a coalition. This will likely result in a distancing from the European Union and further privatization efforts of housing, healthcare and education. The Labor party will likely not play any role of significance. It has lost many of its voters because of the pivotal role it played in designing the current austerity measures and its close embrace of free-market policies.The Dutch economy, the sixth-largest economy in the eurozone, was hit hard in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis: numerous banks and insurers received billion-euro taxpayer-funded bail outs, and two banks were even completely nationalized. In the period 2009 through 2013 gross domestic product shrunk by almost 2 percent, the unemployment rate reached a peak of 8.5 percent in 2013 and median house prices fell by more than 20 percent.In response to the economic downturn, the Dutch cabinet, which is made up out of a coalition of the Conservative and Labor Party and led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, started implementing austerity measures in 2011. The measures run through 2017 and could total almost 50 billion euros (equivalent to about seven percent of annual GDP). They consist of budget cuts, accelerating infrastructure programs, offering corporate tax breaks for employers, expanding export credit and privatizing parts of health care and social housing.The budget cuts target the most vulnerable, and arguably the most necessary, sectors of society: health care, social security, arts & culture and education. While people's actual income declined in the period through 2014, user fees for prescribed treatments and medication rose. This is partly stoked through the growing global costs of pharmaceuticals and caring for a rapidly aging populous, but rising insurance fees and privatization of several hospitals and specialists. In a country where the cost of health care used to be a relatively low and where universal health care is mandated by law, many people are struggling to pay their medical bills.Another example is social housing. About 60 percent of houses on Amsterdam's famed canals were made up out of social housing. The privatization measures of the Dutch government and local municipality have more than halved the number of houses classified for social housing in recent years. When a person leaves social housing, it now often goes on the private market, renting for ten or twenty times its initial rent, or being sold to the highest bidder.While the Dutch economy has strengthened significantly in the past two years, and is forecast to grow stronger in the years to come, the poor, weak and young do not stand to benefit. The conservative VVD and nationalist PVV parties are currently forecast to become the two largest parties in the March 2017 general election, and may form a coalition. This will likely result in a distancing from the European Union and further privatization efforts of housing, healthcare and education. The Labor party will likely not play any role of significance. It has lost many of its voters because of the pivotal role it played in designing the current austerity measures and its close embrace of free-market policies.
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