Democracy in crisis
by
Marcel Van Silfhout |
Coalitions will be norm in the Netherlands, Belgium
The elections in the Netherlands and Belgium are over. The verdicts in both countries are splintered. The outcome of the elections is historical and worrisome. It will be hard to find a stable coalition government for both the countries. If their worry is on the surface of the political firmament, underneath lays a bigger and deep crisis. A crisis of democracy, besides the global financial meltdown, the downfall of our economies and the current euro struggle.
Since 1953, former editor-in-chief of NRC Handelsblad J.L. Heldring has been writing columns for this quality newspaper. In his last column he asked himself a question that echoes a column I wrote two weeks ago about a Dutch democracy that has been turned into a mediacracy: an informal political system in which the elections have become a game of insipid TV debates and day-by-day polls. Heldring puts his question under the title ‘Imploding democracy’ like this: Has our democracy ended to exist, or, with preserving the name, unrecognisably changed?
The 92-year-old Heldring, a respected conservative intellectual, has seen much history pass by. So, if he is pointing out that democracy in the Netherlands seems to be in an imploding condition, we should wake up and take a stock of the situation: In which direction we are heading? What is the goal? If we loose grip on a system that has led us to welfare and a highly developed civil society what is next in store for us? What sort of ‘ism’ we might expect in the near future? More cowboy capitalism, old ghosts like Marxism, Nationalism, or Fascism? Or, would it be some kind of dangerous ‘ism’ we haven’t yet spotted but which is already among us?
Heldring is right when he points out that an imploding democracy isn’t as weird as it looks. “In the past 20 years we’ve witnessed the mutation, even the vaporisation of such phenomenon. In Europe and the Soviet Union communism evaporated. In China we see a sort of capitalism that reminds us of the Marxist version of Dickens age.”
What about the capitalistic winner of the cold war? Well, Heldring writes on, “wasn’t it Bush junior who saved banks and the car industry by financial injections worth countless billions?” He is right, the world is out of sync, and when the temperature is high, anything will become fluid.
Back to the outcome of the Dutch elections last week. All kinds of historical records were broken. Never the liberals have been the biggest party. Never have the Christian Democrats lost so many seats. Never had we had such a close call. Never before the biggest party has only 31 seats. Never before in the Dutch history had an extreme right Anti-Islam movement with so many seats as Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party has.
Wilders scored 24 seats (out of 150) and became the third party. He outnumbered the ruling Christian Democrats (21 seats). It’s said the outgoing Prime Minister Balkenende fought for gold, but he didn’t get even bronze. In Belgium, a similar development took place: the always powerful Christian Democrats lost power.
The big question facing the Dutch is which stable coalition can be formed? All formations will face massive problems. In Belgium, the Flemish Nationalist Party gained handsomely. They want autonomy for their Dutch- speaking part of the country. (AFP picture shows leader of New Flemish Alliance Bart De Wever addressing the press in Brussels on Sunday). But the Flemish nationalists have to cooperate with the French socialists in order to achieve their goals. In Holland, the Liberals and Christian Democrats are the only ones who might form a coalition with Wilders’ Freedom Party. But they are not eager to find themselves in a cabinet with such a notorious populist and right-wing extremist party.
Still, this isn’t the biggest Dutch or Belgian problem. To understand the real thing, we should go back to Heldrings’ musings. The Dutch elections were a series of opinion polls and TV debates that created an “overload and over-exposure’’ of meaningless matter. Holland tops in the use of Twitter. The tweets ignored the situation in the rest of the world; they were all about ‘our economy at home’, but no one twittered that the Dutch economy is ‘70 per cent made abroad.’
No concerns about the euro crisis or whatever else is happening in the world. Both countries have gone inward, populism and nationalism are clearly on their return. Berlusconi’s Italy is already a sick and scary example. But does it also apply to the whole of Europe? It might be. France, England, Germany, everywhere same sort of national economic approach to ‘solve the crisis’ is made, mostly containing massive cutbacks as sole solution. But without a grand mutual plan, this is a recipe for disaster. It might help to save the position of some politicians for a while, but it is an economic suicide. The price to pay for this populism and lack of wise and visionary leadership will tell on the ordinary European citizen. Let’s hope our economy and democracy, although both haven’t much vitality anymore, will survive the righteous public anger in the coming days.
(Marcel van Silfhout is an investigative reporter working for public Dutch Television)
Oman Tribune
|
Other comment for Marcel Van Silfhout
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| NEWS UPDATES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
