Dutch elections
 

What will/would you vote?

For advise, go to: www.stemwijzer.nl.

The Stemwijzer being online seems like a good moment to start this thread. ;) Only 35 days until the elections, after all.

This was my outcome. A result I can live by...

http://www.straland.com/junk/StemadviesNL2006.gif

And for the non-Dutch speaking poor souls, here's a translations of all the thirty questions on the voters advise site. ;)

1. Citizens should be able to elect the prime minister.
2. Child benefit should be raised.
3. If you earn more, you should pay a higher premium for health insurance.
4. Parents who work should pay for the crèche/day care.
5. If you are in need of homecare, you should pay for it.
6. People below 27 should be excluded from social security.
7. People aged 65 and above receive an old age pension (AOW). People with AOW and a retirement pay above 15,000 euro a month should also pay for AOW.
8. It should be easier for employers to fire employees.
9. Hash and other softdrugs should become legal.
10. Fighting terrorism is more important than personal freedom and privacy.
11. Everyone aged 14 and above should be able to identify him-/herself on the street. This law should be dispensed with.
12. Everyone may speak his opinion, even if it is discriminating for others.
13. A teacher at a school with a high knowledge deprivation should earn more than a teacher at a normal school.
14. (free translation) There are now two secondary school levels: grammar/high school and lower secondary professional education (VMBO). The VMBO should be split (like it used to be) into: lower general secondary education (MAVO) and higher general secondary education (HAVO).
15. Christian and islamic schools should be allowed to refuse certain new students.
16. The government now pays for three public channels. One of them should be terminated.
17. Euthenasia should remain allowed.
18. Everyone should indicate before (s)he dies whether he allows his/her organs to be passed on to ill people.
19. Some people have a Dutch passport and a passport of the country of origin. The government should dispense with this double nationality.
20. Criminal Antillians should be sent back to the Antilles to serve one's time. (The Antilles are a Dutch colony.)
21. A house owner may substract the mortgage rent from his income when calculating taxes. This regulation should be disadvantaged for people with a high income taking out a mortgage.
22. Landlords should be free to determine the rent.
23. No more mosques may be created.
24. Schiphol (airport) should keep on growing.
25. To fight traffic jams, more roads should be built.
26. Eventually the Netherlands should quit on nuclear energy.
27. Animals rights should be entered in the constitution.
28. Turkey should become member of the European Union.
29. The Netherlands should spend more on defense.
30. The Netherlands should no longer participate in the development of the Joint Strike Fighter.

I don't know. I voted GroenLinks for years, but I have reasons to change my vote.

Femke Halsema? ;)

I usually just ignore these "stemwijzers", because I think they're useless. Everything is black-and-white here.
For example: I think animal rights are important. Pets should be treated well, and the same goes for farm animals, but I also know for a fact that test-animals are essential in drug- and disease-research, so what to vote on this question:

Because I am certain both issues should be included in this.

I voted "yes", which may explain the number 2 on my result:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...123_advies.jpg
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I was already 90% certain that I would vote CDA (VVD was the other 10%), and this result definately won't change that.

Terrible. You can't even weigh the environment as factor anymore. Only nuclear power. I couldn't vote for a party that would want to build a new nuclear power plant, and I can't think of a reason why someone would want to build a new nuclear plant because it's so friggin' expensive.

So my top 4 is GL, SP, PvdA and PvdD. Of these parties, PvdA fails because they have a pretty dumb position towards new roads: why do you want more roads when it's proven that's no solution? There are better solutions like electronic speed control. But there's no party that actually comes up with a decent solution. I might switch to the SP, but I'll have to look into their environmental position. Last time I did that it was somewhat lacking. The only reason I'd go with the SP is that I feel voting for GL is going to be a vote wasted: I can't see them losing less than 2 seats, which makes them almost obsolete. The reason for my discontent is that they fail in presenting their program (which is pretty okay as far as I'm concerned). I have no problem with Halsema. OK, some..., but the rest of the party is the biggest problem. Where are they? I'm voting for ideological reasons, but this is just pushing it.

After all, I might just end up voting for Diederik Samson.

I think the questions are quite black and white too. Example:

4. Parents who work should pay for the crèche/day care.

What does this mean? Parents who should pay for daycare like everybody else or parents who don't work shouldnt pay for daycare, or how much you pay for daycare should depend on your income?

IMO everybody who wants to use daycare should pay for it but I'm pro making it more attractive for working parents. Currently daycare is so frigging expensive you need to have a pretty decent income to make it worthwhile working and using daycare centers.

From a macroeconomic we're better off when people work instead of taking care of their children fulltime. Working: parents pays taxes and provides income for people working at daycare who also pay taxes.
Not working: no tax income and less employment for daycare centers: more social benefits needed.

I suppose the question hints at the VVD opinion daycare should be free for working parents but isnt very clear in my point of view. I voted 'pro' on this one in the end but it sort of felt like gamble.

I'm gonna vote VVD again although the stemwijzer put them on 6th place only for me [lol] Main reason is idealogical like Shabba: I believe more liberal policies will benefit our economy most.

I score high on SP, Groen links, Partij voor de Dieren (WTF??), Christenunie, PvdA, D66, CDA (hmmm).
I score low on Wilders, Fortuyn, Partij voor Nederland, 1 nl, VVD and SGP.

But that shouldn't be a surprise.

@Shabba & ProPain: I personally follow the rule to be a member of the party based on ideology and basic principles. But I vote based on the current political situation. I can imagine, for example, that I wouldn't vote CDA in 1994 when they had all these internal problems.

I got the lowest compatibility with the Dierenpartij, even though I voted yes on the animalright issue!