Natalee Holloway suspect speaks out … again, biography reckons Willem-Alexander is fit to be king, Dutch supermarkets rile Portugal’s port producers, election fever takes hold and local party wants chips reinstated at swimming pool.

Natalee Holloway: the truth at last?
Another chapter in the mysterious disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway back in 2005 looks set to unfold. De Telegraaf leads today with a tearful photograph of the main suspect in the case, Joran van der Sloot, and the headline “Natalee snorted cocaine and fell off the balcony”. The words come from a TV interview given by Joran, due to be broadcast on Sunday.

The big question is whether he can be believed or not: this isn’t the first time that Joran van der Sloot has supposedly revealed all about Natalee’s fateful final evening, only to later deny he had been telling the truth. Little wonder then that De Telegraaf asks “is it real or is he acting?” and there are reports that the authorities on Aruba, the scene of Natalee’s disappearance, have dismissed the story as “fantasy and lies”.

But the paper also talks to a former police chief who investigated the case, Gerald Dompig. He thinks this latest confession should be taken seriously, as the new version of events fits the timeline of the case and Joran gives more specific details than ever before. The young Dutchman continues to maintain that he was present when Natalee died and that he got rid of her body. He says he gave the interview because “he wants to come clean once and for all ... Almost half of the Netherlands thinks I’m a killer.” We’ll just have to wait and see whether this latest media gambit helps change that view.

Arise King Willem IV
Crown Prince Willem-Alexander must be delighted with the new biography about him, launched yesterday. The title alone is likely to make his heart beat faster - Willem IV, from Prince to King - and indeed nrc.next reports that “he is ready to rule”. According to the authors, “there is a great chance that the prince will succeed in making the monarchy in the Netherlands an undisputed and binding factor, as long as he is surrounded by good advisors”. They are not unreservedly positive, however. Without sound advice the authors say the prince “is vulnerable, regardless of all the other qualities he possesses.”

On the whole though, it’s good news for the Crown Prince, whose hasn’t been without his PR problems in recent months. He was forced to abandon plans for a holiday villa in Mozambique amid a storm of controversy but his biographers are convinced that the “low points will be forgotten” and that the Mozambique fiasco will be nothing more than “a ripple on the lake”.

Trouw focuses on the Prince’s philosophical side, reporting that “Crown Prince Willem Alexander studied Islam for around 18 months” albeit within the relatively tame environment of his monthly Bible club. The paper notes that “in a country with one million Muslim subjects, it makes sense that a future king should seriously explore that religion too.” The paper notes that the days when the Crown Prince was dismissed as “Prince Pils” [pils is the Dutch word for lager], a rather superficial and not all too bright character, are now well behind him: “for years he has worked hard on his image, and not without success.”

Portugal furious at Dutch bumper bargain port
“Supermarkets abuse port” is the headline in de Volkskrant, which reports that the pricing policy in Dutch supermarkets is threatening the future of 40,000 farmers in the protected Douro Valley in northeast Portugal. Two organisations representing the interests of the port producers are sounding the alarm bells in both The Hague and Brussels, arguing that Dutch supermarkets are the only ones in Europe to entice customers by selling port for under the minimum cost price. “Port has become a weapon in the price war,” says a spokesman for the industry, while admitting that a boycott would be futile as “the Netherlands is one of our most important export markets”.

The port producers reckon the rock bottom prices are bad for the drink’s image, and fear it will become “a tipple for pensioners. If port loses its value, it will lead to disinterest among customers.” And it would appear that there’s more at stake than money. “The result is that the Douro Valley will be lost … less than ten years after it became part of the UNESCO world heritage programme.”

The cost of voting
With the local elections just around the corner and national elections only a few months down the line, the papers are in the grip of election fever on a daily basis. Today AD focuses on the practicalities and grumbles "it's unbelievable how we can make something as simple as voting so complicated". There are two reasons for the fuss and bother. One is the need to revert to voting with pencil and paper after problems with voting computers were discovered a few years back. The paper reports that this is set to cost 7 million euros extra, as more staff and polling booths are needed, not to mention the expense of pencils and printing the voting forms.

The second complicating factor is identification. In the hope of boosting the diminishing election turnout, people will now be able to vote in any local polling station but that means they have to show a valid ID as well as produce their voting slip. AD observes this is something of a problem when "200,000 voters don't have an ID card or a valid passport, to say nothing of those who are bound to forget them on the day". The paper concludes "one of the main issues at the local elections is reducing bureaucracy. The parties are full of promises. But perhaps we should start by making it easy to exercise our democratic rights in the first place."

Chips with everything
There’s bad news for the politicians in De Telegraaf today: a whopping 94 percent of its readers’ panel agrees with the statement that “trust in politicians has disappeared”. It quotes respondents as saying “politicians don’t listen enough” and “a lot will have to change before I turn out to vote again”.

So spare a thought for the voters of Zeist, where the local VVD [liberal] party has launched a fierce campaign to reverse a ban on chips at the local swimming pool. “Talk about the nanny state!” exclaims an irate party spokesman posing poolside with an illicit bag of chips. “People have a right to decide for themselves what they want to eat.” Another campaigner asks in AD “How are we ever going to know if this ban is working? Are we going to start weighing all the kids?”

The executive councillor responsible for the measure is not impressed and insists rather grandly that “this culinary initiative needs to be given a fair chance”. You can almost see him rolling his eyes as he adds laconically “A week before the elections you’re bound to get stunts like this. Who knows, it may win them a few votes.” And they wonder why voters are too disillusioned to turn out in their droves …