European Parties and the Immigrant vote

[wilpuri]

Dispatch from the Eurabian Front: Socialist Equilibrists Try Not to Fall
From the desk of Paul Belien on Wed, 2006-03-22 16:17

Wouter Bos, the leader of the Dutch Social-Democrats, is angry with the press for publishing his concerns about the growing number of Muslim politicians within his party. Later generations will probably look upon 2006 as a watershed year in Dutch politics. The municipal elections on 7 March were won by Bos’s Labour Party, the Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) and lost by the two governing parties of the center-right coalition in The Hague, the Christian-Democrat CDA and the Liberal VVD. As we reported earlier the balance was tipped by the Muslim vote.

Eighty percent of the growing immigrant electorate voted for the PvdA, while the remaining Muslims voted for smaller parties of the extreme left, with just 3% for the CDA and 1% for the VVD. This phenomenon prompted De Telegraaf, the largest paper in the country, to write that the immigrants have become a “power block.”

A case in point is the Amsterdam borough of Geuzenveld-Slotermeer. Here the PvdA won 54% of the votes and more than doubled its share of seats from 6 to 13. Of these 13 seats, however, 5 were won by Turkish and 2 by Moroccan candidates. This means that more than half the seats of the largest party were won by Muslims. The situation resembles that in the regional parliament of Brussels, the so-called “capital of Europe,” where the Parti Socialiste is the largest party. Over half its 26 seats are held by (14) Muslim immigrants (10 Moroccans, 2 Turks, 1 Tunisian and 1 West-African from Guinea).

The electoral strength of the Left in Western Europe is increasingly based on the immigrant vote, as the Left caters for voters who favour extensive redistribution of taxpayers’ money to so-called “underprivileged” groups such as immigrants.

The extent of the phenomenon, however, seems to have taken Wouter Bos by surprise. The Dutch electoral system works with lists of candidates. Once a party knows how many of its candidates are elected the seats go to the candidates on the list who attracted the most votes. Though some Muslim candidates were placed low in the list, on inconspicuous places where candidates usually have no hope of being elected, most of the Muslim candidates were elected anyhow, because the immigrant electorate voted almost exclusively along ethnic lines, casting their ballots always for candidates from their own circle and hardly ever for an indigenous Dutch candidate.

The PvdA leader is worried about the poor competence of many of the elected immigrants. He said last Friday that “our new immigrant councillors” are bound to cause trouble because their “political culture” is often incompatible with Dutch politics: “They conduct politics according to the culture of their home countries, where clientelism is the norm.” Bos’s words were widely reported by the Dutch media and caused anger among the newly elected PvdA councillors, some of whom hinted that Bos had made a racist remark.

The PvdA now blames the press. PvdA chairman Michiel van Hultsen said that the media are “polarising the debate” and that some have a “racist” agenda. He said that the media “lack respect for immigrants” and would not have devoted attention to Bos’s remark if he had not been talking about immigrants. Wouter Bos said: “I am dumbfounded at being placed on a [racist] side I thought I was fighting. I have made it perfectly clear that I am very happy with the large number of immigrant voters.”

Meanwhile in Sweden a member of the Socialist government has resigned over the affair of the Danish Muhammad cartoons. On Tuesday Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds stepped down, making her the fourth government minister to resign over the Danish cartoons. (An Italian minister resigned after wearing a T-shirt with the cartoons, which sparked riots in Libya that cost Libya’s interior minister his job. Riots over the cartoons also cost Lebanon’s interior minister his position.) Freivald’s position became untenable when it emerged that last month she had a Swedish website shut down
for running the cartoons. According to the Foreign Ministry the cartoons were “offensive” (see them here, halfway down the page) and the website was endangering the lives of Swedish citizens by antagonising Muslim extremists.

Interesting developments, to say the least. Personally I believe it is only a matter of time before so called 'ethnic parties' begin forming. So far most of the Ethnic parties have in fact been native parties (e.g. Vlaams Belang, which can be considered to be a solely Flemish party, although it also has voters from other ethnic groups, for example Jews), and the left has so far acted as the platform for the 'immigrant vote'. I think so far it is because of the Left's views on immigration, multiculture and so on, but if the left will stay true to other values they supposedly hold dear (which I wouldn't bet on considering the precedent situations), we will see the formation of immigrant parties, I am almost sure of it.

Thoughts?

[Jan Kazimierz]

I tuely is a very intresting development, Wilpuri. As a dutchman, this concerns my own government.

A month ago, the dutch had to vote for city council elections. What was intresting to see was that the opposition (social parties) got their big victory. That was not a very suprising development itself, since the voters here are always blaming their personal problems (financial, work) on the government in place. But the strange thing is that most immigrants voted, because of their anger to government policy towards immigrants, for their fellow countrymen, who mostly are in the social parties.

Now, the social parties see the problems posed by the elections of these immirgant figures. Statisticly the immigrant population is far less highly educated then most natives. Not suprisingly are the newly elected immigrants not that competent as their native colleages. The fact that the left wing parties where silently putting these figures on a sidetrack, caused stirr under the local immigrant population, which used the popular accusement of discrimination..

What stuns me is that these developments are not only occuring in the Netherlands, but also outside our country. I guess that your statement Wilpuri, about the development of ethnic parties is not far away. I guess that is simply to be blamed to the fact that some ethnic parties in a country will not totally adapt to native cultural understandings..

The 'Vlaams Belang' is also a very intresting example. Since the Flemish are fed up having to pay billions to the French speaking part of the country, there are loud voices to slit up Belgium. These voices are heard internationally via the party 'Vlaams Belang'..

These sort of policits, I think, are an reaction to the growing anger towards the immigrant poluation, which does not adapt itself to native ideas, and is often low educated and in a criminal atmosphere. I wonder how long it'll take the immigrants to make up there own harsh, ethnic parties..

It is certainly not a wishful development..