If people thought that the new CDA leader, Henri Bontenbal, would bring a breath of fresh air to that party, I have bad news. The man stopped by Nieuwsuur yesterday where he proudly told us that he excludes cooperation with both PVV and FVD. Even in a tolerated construction. Unbelievable.
Bontenbal is promoted by both the media and the CDA as a "breath of fresh air. As a real renewal of the CDA. As a man who can bring the CDA back to the top because he is so incredibly different from Wopke Hoekstra and Hugo de Jonge.
Well, that turns out to be totally false. In fact, Bontenbal hates the democratic process as much as his two predecessors. He, too, already excludes, in advance, two democratically elected parties: FVD and PVV.
"Those parties keep showing that they often do not respect the democratic rule of law," logged Bontenbal last night on Nieuwsuur. We won't go into a coalition with them or into a tolerated construction."
Of course this is completely nonsensical. The PVV and especially FVD are actually much more democratic than the CDA on many issues. FVD is the referendum party of our country. The party is totally democratic internally. FVD wants the trias politicas - distribution of power - to be restored and honored. The party has very often in the past argued for a decoupling of cabinet and parliament, for example, by establishing a business cabinet so that parliament can and will do its job better....
During the corona crisis the FVD was the only party that really stood up for our fundamental rights and wanted to stop the government when it announced all sorts of draconian measures that a) were ineffective and b) clearly violated the constitution;
I could go on and on like this. The idea that FVD and also PVV are carrying out an attack on the democratic rule of law is too crazy for words.
The only parties that do are the parties of the party cartel, with the CDA at the forefront. They have let the cabinet get away with illegal practices during corona, with destroying families in the benefits affair, they have given Mark Rutte free rein again and again when he blatantly lied and deceived parliament.... And then they also exclude in advance parties that were democratically elected to the House of Representatives.
(Call continues below this article) At DDS we are MOE of the party cartel that keeps playing games like this! We must do something. We need to stand up to these cartel parties that declare democracy dead even before the elections. But for that we need your support. Because the media cartel and the party cartel are punishing media who oppose this COMPLETELY. Support us there! Donate to DDS via BackMe. And help us expose the CDA as the anti-democratic party it is.
What this all proves is that Bontenbal's "fresh wind" is no fresh wind at all. The man is simply Hugo de Jonge 2. A clone of that other CDA-Rotterdammer who is authoritarian to the bone, hates democracy, and constantly wants to exclude dissenters.
The only good news is that this means the CDA can be punished rock hard in the 2023 elections to the House of Representatives. On Nov. 22, the Netherlands can finally deal with this kind of arrogant, anti-democratic, nasty creep.