Today are the elections for a new parliament in the Netherlands.

For the non-Dutch: there's a short introduction in English about the elections in a Dutch newspaper.

---

We were watching TV together the whole evening.

Dit was het Nieuws: "Winny de Jong is afraid that the expansion of the European Union would bring in criminals and prostitutes. Her pictures in Panorama prove that we have more than enough of both".

---

I was awake quite early this morning.

---

The voting station is in a local school. It's raining a lot.

---

The voting station.

---

And then the moment is there: the Vote.

Two of my most precious readers sent me two e-cards. They both choose cards from Loesje. Thanks!

Because of the spring.	Today's election day!

I never knew that Loesje is working abroad too. But they've expanded a lot from the small group they once were in 1983. They are posters in Bosnian, Catalan, Italian...

They have an international archive of all the posters they've published since 1990.

For Dutch visitors: there is a wonderful 'Goud van Oud' section too, with beauties such as these:

The Dutch elections of tomorrow have been dominating the news for a long time. Another 26 hours and we'll know if there'll be a right- or a left-wing cabinet.

Tonight we'll see a final 'burst' of politicians on TV:

17:30 - 18:58	Ned. 2: Twee Vandaag
18:50 - 19:30	Ned. 3: NOS-Jeugdjournaal Lijsttrekkersdebat
19:30 - 20:00	Ned. 3: B&W
20:00 - 20:32	Ned. 1: NOS-Journaal
20:29 - 21:00	Ned. 2: Dit was het nieuws	20:32 - 21:03	Ned. 1: Netwerk
21:00 - 22:35	Ned. 2: Lijsttrekkersdebat	21:53 - 22:40	Ned. 1: Het elfde uur
22:20 - 22:45	Ned. 3: Nederland kiest	22:30 - 23:30	RTL 4: Barend & Van Dorp (Thom de Graaf, D66)
22:45 - 00:07	Ned. 3: Freek de Jonge

Could it be true that there is a little bit of spring in the air? Of course it's very early... maybe it's just the fact that today I've heard a lot of good news, from both S and E. And maybe it's because I've a pretty good feel both about my internship (read the latest version) and tomorrow's elections.

The elections will be tomorrow, so all the news paper are full with commercials for political parties.

Wouter pointed me to these pages in the free newspaper Metro.

(Click on Read More... for the picture.)

We have seen our fair share of 'new politicians' this year in the Netherlands.

In an article about Emile Ratelband in the Washington Post:

He calls EU expansion "crazy," saying, "we don't need these gangsters, like Bulgaria." But he thinks Turkey should be allowed into the EU.

Obviously Bulgarians were not very pleased. The spokesman of the Bulgarian government, Todorov, declined to comment. "The ministry will stick to its practice and will not comment statements of foreign politicians made during pre-election campaigns".

Interesting enough on the agenda of Lijst Ratelband it said: "TV opnames voor de Bulgaarse televisie, Bulgarian National Television voor het programma ”Every Sunday”. LIVE!".

A quick phone-call to Bulgaria showed that he was indeed live on Bulgarian TV. My first thought was that he would apologize for his remarks but...

"When I'll be in power, you [Bulgaria] will never get into the European Union. As far as I'm concerned all Bulgarians are criminals."

The politician with the website I like the best is Klaas de Vries. He doesn't update it very frequently but he compensates for that with a very nice writing-style. Today:

"Zalm heeft gezegd dat Wouter liegt. De man is totaal zijn zelfbeheersing kwijt. Daar kan een mental coach niet tegenop. ‘Zalm for President’, heeft zijn campagneteam bedacht. Weten zelfs niet meer in welk land ze zijn."

"Zalm claimed that Wouter is lying. The man has totally lost control; even a mental coach can't fix that anymore. `Zalm for President’, his campaign team came up with. Don't even realize in which country they are."

Obviously Gerrit Zalm is not an option ("Nederland is vol") but he has an interesting website that he updates frequently. Another one I often visit is Marije Logt. She's a member of the local council in Leiden.

Teletekst 2 hours later:



Note the difference.

A dream-teletekst this morning for the PvdA campaign: