Politics and Elections in the Netherlands: coalition agreement presented

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The turnout is a bit disappointing even if it was just a referendum... I wonder because it was just a few points over 30% that the gov't would just go ahead and ratify the treaty anyway.

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The turnout is a bit disappointing even if it was just a referendum... I wonder because it was just a few points over 30% that the gov't would just go ahead and ratify the treaty anyway.

Quite some potential yes voters stayed home in order to prevent turnout from reaching the threshold. I don't expect the government to take the result seriously, and there will be whining about the turnout figure, but the government cannot just ratify it. That would clearly be too much, especially since the PvdA promised to abide by the result (if >30% turnout). I expect the treaty to be changed somewhat, just like the European Constitution became the Treaty of Lisbon by dropping some irrelevant, controversial things. It won't really matter. But if the UK leaves successfully, we will be in pole position to follow.

Ah, thanks. I wonder what could be changed though? Does the agreement allow for visa-free access? I guess that would be changed to be more restrictive.

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I wonder what the Ukrainian reaction is to the result. I am sure it is negative.

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I wonder what the Ukrainian reaction is to the result. I am sure it is negative.

This Politico Europe article about it was interesting.

Wow. Poroshenko is really in a mess. There really are no heroes in Ukraine.

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So a new testimonial party?

I'm really surprised no Dutch politician has proposed an electoral threshold, like they did in Israel. I mean I'm glad they haven't, because you get crazy weirdos like Animals and DANK and SGP, but still odd.

EDIT: this Kuzu character has a really weird looking head

I think I saw a VVD politician had said something about establishing an electoral threshold. Not sure how that would go down now.

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Having sex with a prostitute whom one knows is a victim of human trafficking will become illegal. A majority of MPs voted for a motion by CU, SP and PvdA to this end.

I am not surprised by VVD. I wonder if D66 voted against it also. They seem like they could.