Dutch Elections

Dutch Election Outlook Buoys Euro; Dollar Struggles At 1-month Low

... last stood at 113.420. “Speculation of four rate hikes this year may have been excessive. The dot plot was left mostly unchanged, shaking out expectations among dollar bulls that had gone too far,” said Koji Fukaya, president of FPG Securities in Tokyo. The “dot plot” reflects Fed policymakers' interest rate projections. The yen showed little reaction after the Bank of Japan stood pat on monetary policy and kept the 10-year government bond yield target of around zero per cent, as the central bank's decision was well anticipated. The focus is now on BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda's post-meeting briefing at 0630 GMT for clues on the central bank's stance on whether and when to pull back its massive stimulus programme. Hours after the Fed's rate hike, China's central bank on Thursday raised short-term interest rates for the third time in as many months, a day after the end of the annual session of parliament where leaders warned that tackling debt risks would be a top policy priority this year. The Chinese yuan weakened to 6.87 per dollar, after strengthening to 6.8455 after the Fed's policy ...

Give It Back’ Netherlands Mp Orders Queen Maxima To Give Up Her Argentine Passport

... about Dutch identity. He has also proposed introducing singing the national anthem in schools and mandatory community service. The Royal House is yet to comment on the matter, which coincided with the announcement of a state visit by the President of Argentina later this month. Argentina and the Netherlands work closely together with the European nation a principal investor and trading partner to Queen Maxima’s birthplace. Getty Images. 1 of 20. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands attends the royal wedding of Prince Carl Philip of Sweden and Sofia Hellqvist at The Royal Palace. Opinion polls show Mr Buma trailing Mr Rutte's VVD by four percentage points and just one point behind nationalist Mr Wilders, on a rising trend. He could command around 20 seats in a fractured 150-seat parliament. Mr Buma told Reuters all the pre-election talk had been that "this campaign would be about a rivalry between Rutte and Wilders”. He added: “What's left of that dual? We are getting stronger every day and the chance that we are the biggest on election day is very real, and no one is expecting it.". Polls close at 9 pm local time, with a formal ...

Steep Rise In Turnout As Dutch Vote In Divisive Elections

... as Dutch vote in divisive elections. Now Reading. Steep rise in turnout as Dutch vote in divisive elections. Today's Top Stories. last updated: 15/03/2017. In the Netherlands, some polling stations are swamped because turnout is so high. Some are even running out of ballots, according to Europe Elects. The polls had been open just six hours when the turnout was estimated at 33 per cent, far higher than five years ago, according to pollster Ipsos. It is one of the closest parliamentary votes in memory, with five parties vying for the top spots. A win for the outspoken anti-Islam anti-EU Geert Wilders, leader of PVV (Partij Voor Vrijheid) could send shockwaves through Europe. “It will be a very interesting day, a lot is at stake in Holland and I hope of course we’ll win but whether we win or lose I think we put our mark on the elections so far. But it’s a sunny day, I hope a lot of people go and vote, it’s the most important think for democracy and I hope my party does well but we have to wait and ...

Polls Open In Closely Watched Dutch Elections

... parallels to the U. S. presidential election that we just had. LANGFITT: There were a lot of parallels here, Rachel, between what we saw in the United States during basically Trump's election also in Brexit it in the U. K., which I covered. You hear a lot of those same kinds of tensions both economically and in terms of people's views of migrants. The question is, how's he going to do today? He'd been leading the polls for a long time. So he's getting a ton of attention internationally. But he has been slipping recently. And there are a lot of Dutch voters, even people who like Wilders, who say he's a bit too extreme. So it's going to be very, very interesting to see how this all turns out. MARTIN: NPR's Frank Langfitt in Amsterdam. Thanks so much, Frank. LANGFITT: Happy to do it, Rachel. (SOUNDBITE OF TYCHO'S "DIVISION"). Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at __link__ for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb 8 tm, Inc. , an NPR contractor, and ...

Dutch Prime Minister Claims Victory Over Anti-muslim Candidate Geert Wilders

... sharp and persistent thorn in the side of the nation’s mainstream leaders. Outside Dutch borders, many leaders offered sighs of reliefat the dike that voters may have erected against populist tides. “Congratulations to the Dutch for stopping the rise of the extreme right,” wrote French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Twitter. “Willingness to work for a stronger Europe.” His nation faces the first round of a presidential election on April 23. There, National Front leader Marine Le Pen has vowed to try to lead France out of the European Union if she wins the presidency, a step that would likely shatter the bloc. German leaders also face a challenge as the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party stands to capture seats in Parliament. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also sent a relieved valentine. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is greeted by supporters as he arrives to make a speech in The Hague after his election victory. (Carl Court/Getty Images). “I look forward to continued good cooperation as friends, neighbors, Europeans,” Merkel told Rutte in a phone call, her spokesman said. ...

White Innocence And The Dutch Elections

... of anti-Islam politician Pim Fortuyn , murdered in 2002, who liked to brag about his sexual escapades with Moroccan-Dutch young men. Today, Wilders insists that he is not a racist, despite his conviction last year for inciting racial discrimination against Moroccan-Dutch people after leading a chant supporting having “fewer, fewer” Moroccans in the Netherlands. It is a mistake, however, to attribute such attitudes solely to the right. In what philosopher Baukje Prins calls the politics of “ new realism ,” speaking freely, without regard for “political correctness,” is a sign of virtue, of egalitarian and characteristically Dutch bluntness. Humor and irony allow the speaker disavow racist utterances as mere jokes, to “have his cake and eat it too.” And it is indeed usually “he”: Confident in their ...

This Surprising Upset Could Upend The Dutch Election

... Spots. China's tech giants are pouring billions into US start-ups. It's a power grab that is affecting Turkish relations with a host of other countries, as well including Germany and Greece. Under a state-of-emergency regime, President Erdogan is conducting an all-out campaign to rally supporters at home and throughout Europe. His goal: to eliminate opposition ahead of a constitutional referendum on April 16, where a "yes" vote would officially grant him even more unchecked authority over the executive, legislative and judiciary branches of government, which critics claim is reminiscent of the Ottoman Sultan, who once ruled one of the world's greatest empires. To achieve his purpose, Erdogan is running campaigns outside Turkey. He especially aims at drumming up support for himself among Turkish citizens in Germany. Germany hosts the biggest Turkish diaspora in the world, with approximately 530,000 Germans also holding a Turkish passport. At the same time, 1.5 million Turkish people reside in Germany without ...

Where Are The Battlegrounds In The Dutch Election

... ahead of the Liberals on 20.5 percent, but the 2015 provincial elections saw the Freedom Party topping the poll, ahead of D 66. Europe’s biggest port has a history of backing maverick politicians; it’s where Pim Fortuyn rose to prominence before he was murdered in 2002. Liberals Winning Here. If you’re looking for a typical place where Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberal Party rules the roost, it could be Wassenaar, nestled between The Hague and Leiden in South Holland and one of the richest towns in the entire country. More than 52 percent voted Liberal in 2012. In the Hague itself, the seat of the Dutch parliament and government, the battle may be between the Liberals and D 66, which both polled 18 percent in provincial elections two years ago. Green Breakthrough. Green leader Jesse Klaver has drawn comparisons ...

Attorney General Exodus, Merkel Comes To Washington, Dutch Elections

... Another controversial decision by the Trump administration: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will travel to Asia this week without a press corps. The administration claims it’s a cost saver, but media outlets pay for the trip. The absence of U. S. press on Tillerson’s trip to Japan, South Korea, and China could mean foreign media (in particular Chinese state media) will shape the narrative around the visit. It’s a busy week for U. S. diplomacy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Washington Tuesday to meet for the first time with Trump.  Their relationship got off to a rocky start when Trump personally blamed Merkel for ruining her country over Germany’s refugee policy when she beat him for Time person of the year in 2015. Trump’s chief trade advisor, Peter Navarro, didn’t exactly help repair the relationship when he accused Germany of ...

Eur/usd Breaks 1.07 On Yellen, Dutch Elections

... Bo E certainly has reasons to be concerned. The following table shows that the only area of improvement was in retail sales and the unemployment rate but spending still declined at the start of the year. Given the uncertainty posed by Brexit and the recent performance of the U. K. economy, we believe that the tone of central bank statement and/or minutes will be cautious.  When the Bo E last met, they upgraded their economic forecasts but Governor Carney  said "the Brexit journey is really just beginning. While the direction of travel is clear, there will be twists and turns along the way."  Investors were disappointed by his cautious tone and sent sterling tumbling as a result and we think the risk is the same for tomorrow's announcement. All three of the commodity currencies traded sharply higher against the greenback with the New Zealand dollar experiencing particularly strong gains.   NZD was lifted by a narrower than expected current account deficit of -2.335 b vs. -2.425 b expected which bodes well for tonight's GDP report.  Fourth quarter growth is expected to have slowed at the end of the year but the risk is to upside given healthier trade and current account ...

Dutch People Head To The Polls For 2017 Parliamentary Elections

... Amsterdam at midnight. Hundreds of votes were already cast, RTL Nieuws reports. All polling stations are open between 7:30 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Don't know where to vote? A map with polling stations per municipality can be found here. Milo Lambers from Haarlem was the first Dutch person to cast his vote in the parliamentary election. He waited for over an hour in front of the Castricum polling station before it opened. He would not tell RTL who he voted for, but did say that the party falls on the left of the political spectrum. "Both the party and the people who belong to it ideologically best fit with my views", he said to the broadcaster. Between midnight and 1:00 a.m. a total of 97 people cast their vote at the Castricum polling station, located at the flower kiosk at the train station. Many young people voted in Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam, according to NOS. About 400 young people between the ages of 18 and 25 years attended a voting party there, organized by music labels Top Notch, Noahs Ark and Rotterdam Airlines. To get into the party you had to take a voting pass and have your ID with you. According to one of the organizers, ...

Dutch Election’s Big Winner Proves To Be Greenleft

... ago by a merger of communists, pacifists, evangelicals and self-styled radicals – quadrupled its MPs from four to 16 after a storming campaign by Klaver. “This is a fantastic result for us, a historic victory,” said the party chairwoman, Marjolein Meijer. The result showed there was “very fertile ground in the Netherlands for change and a positive and hopeful story”, she said. “For us this is just the beginning.”. The party celebrated its historic advance with a tweet showing a gif of Kermit the Frog dancing for joy. Groen Links (@groenlinks). March 15, 2017. Sometimes compared to Canada’s youthful prime minister, Justin Trudeau , Klaver – who has a Moroccan father and a mother of Indonesian descent – said on polling day that the left’s answer to the far right’s rise in Europe was to stand up for its ideals. “What I would say to all my leftwing friends in Europe: don’t try to fake the populace,” he said. “Stand for your principles. Be straight. Be pro-refugee. Be pro-European. We’re gaining momentum in the polls. And I think that’s the message we have to send to Europe. You can stop populism.”. The 'Jessiah': the Dutch progressive trying to turn ...