United States President Barack Obama is much more popular in the Netherlands than any of the country’s own politicians. This high estimation by the Dutch public is revealed in the results, published at the weekend, of an opinion poll conducted through the peil.nl website by opinion researcher Maurice de Hond, following last week’s trip to the White House by Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

With a ranking of 7.4 (out of a possible ten), Mr Obama outstrips all Dutch politicians, none of whom have ever scored a similar mark. In the six years ‘report marks’ for politicians have featured in the weekly polls carried out by Maurice de Hond for Dutch public broadcaster NOS, no Dutch politician has managed to score a seven, let alone 7.4. Of course, with respondents having different political views and affiliations, a Dutch politician is unlikely ever to score well across the entire political spectrum.

Highest from Labour
Mr Obama is doing well among Dutch voters of all persuasions. However, there is some degree of difference in the US president’s popularity with the Dutch electorate. His highest marks come from people who say they voted at the last Dutch election in 2006 for the governing Labour Party (a 7.7 for Mr Obama), or for the Christian Democrat CDA – the main party in the current three-party coalition - or opposition GreenLeft party (a 7.6). On the other hand, supporters of Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party only give a 6.4 to the current occupant of the White house, while Conservative VVD voters give him a 7.1.

This latest peil.nl poll focused on Mr Obama - and the Netherlands’ attitudes towards him - as a result of last week’s visit to meet the US president by Dutch Christian Democrat president Jan Peter Balkenende.

Meeting issues
The Netherlands’ role in Afghanistan, particularly in the southern province of Uruzgan where the country currently has troops based, was high on the agenda for that meeting, as was the issue of the ‘re-housing’ of people currently being held at the detention centre in US-administered Guantanamo Bay on Cuba.

Mr Balkenende indicated that his country would not ‘abandon’ Afghanistan when its military mission in Uruzgan comes to an end, and also said it would, after all, ‘consider’ the possibility of taking in Guantanamo detainees should that prove necessary to help Mr Obama close the centre as he promised on coming to office at the beginning of 2009.

Not so keen
On these issues, the poll shows that the Dutch are not quite so keen to see their support for Mr Obama translated into too much practical support. Only among supporters of the GreenLeft (opposition) and the much smaller government party the Christian Union are there clear and distinct majorities (68 and 69 percent, respectively) in favour of taking in Guantanamo detainees. The far right opposition Freedom Party, but also the conservative VVD and leftwing Socialist Party show clear majorities against this possibility (92 percent, 64 percent and 65 percent, respectively). In the case of the VVD this is remarkable, as the party in parliament is actually in favour of taking in former prisoners.

In the case of the Afghanistan mission, the views are less clear cut. News agency ANP summarise them as showing that more than 40 percent of the Dutch are prepared to see some troops stay on in Afghanistan after the end of the mission at the end of 2010. Around 20 percent would agree to the current military mission even continuing, but in a slimmed down form. However, almost 33 percent want a complete withdrawal at the end of 2010. According to Maurice de Hond the latter figure has dropped from more than 50 percent six months ago.

(sources: peil.nl/ANP)