CSNbbs

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/...lders-poll

Quote:Brussels was facing a full blown popularity crisis as the dynamite survey showed 56 per cent of people in the Netherlands want to quit the political project and revert back to simple commercial ties.

The shock result was published just two weeks before Dutch voters are set to go to the polls to elect their new government, with far-right eurosceptic politician Geert Wilders leading in the polls.

It also comes a day after Brussels boss Jean-Claude Juncker openly dismissed the idea of taking the EU back to its roots as a trading bloc, despite including that scenario as a possibility in his landmark white paper.

Eurosceptics today hailed the poll as proof that people across the continent are finally realising the EU has become a “straitjacket” which is leaving the them worse off.

The eurosceptic Bruges Group think-tank, which commissioned the survey, said: “Across the continent of Europe and beyond people want to take back control of their lives.

“A concerted campaign for Nexit, along the lines that we saw in the UK, can overtime, just like it did in Britain, move the Netherlands towards the exit.

“Britain will welcome our allies, the Dutch people, in a new post-EU Europe.”

The results will alarm eurocrats who have identified Holland, alongside France and Italy, as part of a trio of threats where rising euroscepticism could rip the bloc limb from limb.

More and more people see that the EU is bad for the Netherlands and for Europe

The three are facing elections within the next 18 months and all eyes are nervously on the Netherlands, which will hold its first, to see if voters in the country follow the populist example set by Donald Trump and Brexit.

The poll, carried out by the respected Maurice de Hond group, found that once ‘don’t knows’ are excluded 56 per cent of Dutch people would vote to leave the EU compared to 44 per cent who would opt for remain.

According to the results Nexit is slightly more popular amongst women that men, by 57 per cent compared to 56 per cent, and is backed by a majority of voters in all age groups over 25 and by those in large cities.

Part of the reason why the numbers are so high is because the question posed to respondents included the options for the Netherlands to quit the whole EU, but maintain economic ties via a free trade agreement with the bloc.

Given the choice just 39 per cent of voters in the Netherlands actively want to remain in the EU as it is, demonstrating the bloc’s massive loss of popularity in the country.

That it plays out internal Brussels polling which has alarmed eurocrats by showing that the proportion of European voters viewing the bloc positively has slumped from half to a third in just a decade.

Whereas when presented with various options 23 per cent would vote to quit and join the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the so-called ‘Norway model’ once touted for Britain but which involves accepting free movement.

And a further 27 per cent want to sever ties altogether and negotiate a comprehensive free trade agreement with the bloc, which is the strategy currently being pursued by Theresa May.

Thierry Baudet, the leader of the eurosceptic Forum for Democracy party, said: "More and more people see that the EU is bad for the Netherlands and for Europe.

“It is a straitjacket in which none of us will be better off. Let us work together well, trading and helping each other wherever possible, but without political superstate.”

The poll comes after Dutch voters overwhelmingly rejected an EU treaty with Ukraine granting visa-free access in a referendum last spring, only for the the result to be ignored by polticians in the Hague and Brussels.

People in the Netherlands have repeatedly demonstrated a eurosceptic streak and also voted down the 2005 EU constitution, which was then infamously repackaged as the Lisbon Treaty and railroaded through.

The Peil poll, carried Maurice de Hond, surveyed 1,174 Dutch voters between February 14-15 this year.

Maybe they're realizing the business of "Europe" should actually be business and not politics. But somehow, I think if the politics they've been pushing most all these years weren't skewed so far-left, then it might not have come to this.

Conclusion: Socialism and pro-communism doesn't work--and people know it in their hearts.

(02-03-2020 12:22 PM)GoodOwl Wrote: [ -> ]Maybe they're realizing the business of "Europe" should actually be business and not politics. But somehow, I think if the politics they've been pushing most all these years weren't skewed so far-left, then it might not have come to this.
Conclusion: Socialism and pro-communism doesn't work--and people know it in their hearts.

The Dutch are big-time traders and business people from way back. They probably believe more than anyone that the business of Europe should be business and not politics. That's certainly in their DNA.

If the EU would go back to being a free trade zone and ditch the whole EU government bureaucratic nonsense, it could serve a useful purpose.

Funny story. I had a Dutch exchange student for a semester. When he went back to Holland, he got an internship at the EU Parliament, working for MEP van Nistleroy (who was, so my student told me, related to Ruud, the footballer). He was a typical Eurokid, totally excited and idealistic about the opportunity. We kept in touch, I think primarily because he had fallen in love with a girl from Dallas, and wanted to come back over for grad school and hoped I would help him get in. Six months later, I was in Amsterdam and had a day to kill, so I took the train down to Brussels. His internship was ending, and he was totally cynical, almost bitter, about the experience. He told me story after story about what a farce it was. There was actually a video in the visitors center showing a "typical" day in the parliament. He said, "Watch this. They are voting on major legislation. You see me bringing a copy in to Mr. van Nistelroy's desk [he's carrying in a huge book]. They are voting on it, and this is the first time he has seen it." The way he explained the process, the bureaucrats do all the negotiating and drafting, and then the parliament simply rubber stamps it. You can imagine how much Nigel Farage hated that MO.

To complete the loose ends, we still keep in touch, he has helped me set up a couple of things for my students, but he broke up with the girl and is no longer coming back for grad school.

(02-03-2020 12:22 PM)GoodOwl Wrote: [ -> ]Conclusion: Socialism and pro-communism doesn't work--and people know it in their hearts.

Not lunatic Bernie and the Jihad Squad

Eurosceptic. Those aholes love the subliminal word games,do they not. How about globalistfascistseptic.

And the leftist loons would have you believe Trump, rather than his big-eared clown predecessor, has diminished our standing on the world stage. "And in a nod to Mr Trump's rise to power in America, he added: "We have the Atlantic world of change on our side."

Fun fact:

The European Parliament meets in Brussels most of the time. But 12 times a year, they meet for a full week in Strasbourg, a French city on the German border. Tens of thousands of politicians, translators, pages, etc travel 400 kilometers south for one week, then come right back to Brussels.

In 2013 an internal study estimated that this setup costs an extra 103 million Euros every year. It's not just the travel expense. They also have to maintain 2 office facilities. And every worker has to rent/own two homes and spend a week away from their family or enroll their kids in two schools.

I think Italy is the next country to leave the EU. Sounds like the Dutch might beat them to it. The leftist Globalists have failed miserably and hopefully the UK started the end of their rule in Europe.

(02-04-2020 10:46 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote: [ -> ]Fun fact:
The European Parliament meets in Brussels most of the time. But 12 times a year, they meet for a full week in Strasbourg, a French city on the German border. Tens of thousands of politicians, translators, pages, etc travel 400 kilometers south for one week, then come right back to Brussels.
In 2013 an internal study estimated that this setup costs an extra 103 million Euros every year. It's not just the travel expense. They also have to maintain 2 office facilities. And every worker has to rent/own two homes and spend a week away from their family or enroll their kids in two schools.

This was one of the things my former student told me about (see post #3 above). Apparently the problem is that the French won't accept anything that isn't voted on and passed on French soil. So whatever they passed in the previous three weeks, they have to go to Strasbourg for the fourth week and pass it again.