Defeated Socialist leader bids politics farewell, press pessimistic over fragmented voters, Nazi past haunts Dutch royals, Netherlands too strict on family reunification and funeral clowns are all the rage…

Socialist Party leader bows out after election drubbing
One glance at today’s front pages is all you need to tell you that Wednesday’s local council elections have claimed their first political victim: dejected Socialist Party leader Agnes Kant announced that she was leaving politics altogether yesterday following the party’s disastrous showing at the polls. De Volkskrant goes with "Kant leaves party speechless", while AD serves up a more ghoulish image: "Socialists decapitated by Agnes Kant's departure".

De Telegraaf focuses on the impact her decision will have on the party: “The Socialists have been plunged into a deep crisis. The red bastion has been shaken to its foundations by her departure.” NRC.next pays tribute to her as "dedicated, honest and well-loved" but all the papers agree that, despite her sterling qualities, she didn’t come across at all well in the media and, as De Telegraaf puts it, “she was never able to emerge from the shadow of her mentor”, the party’s eminently charismatic former leader Jan Marijnissen. Visibly upset by his successor’s departure, Marijnissen rules out any suggestion of a comeback, insisting that “it’s now up to the new generation”.

Freesheet daily De Pers doesn’t see the Socialist leader’s fate as an isolated incident, arguing that “everyone is an Agnes” in today’s political climate: “The media are ruthless. The voters unfaithful. Today’s key political figures are caught in a vicious circle. To win trust, they have to put on a show. And because they are putting on a show, people are less inclined to trust them.” It comes to the cynical conclusion: “They have no choice but to keep it up as long as they can. Agnes Kant has shown them what happens to a politician who lacks a talent for acting.”

Press pessimistic over politicians’ pulling power
Now that the dust has settled on the local council elections, all of the papers devote page after page to analysing the results and trying to work out what they might mean for the upcoming national elections. NRC Handelsblad sums it up neatly: “Never before have municipal elections been consigned to the past so quickly … no sooner had the pooling booths closed than every politician’s gaze was focused on 9 June, the date set for the national election … There’s work to be done!”

Patchwork-quilt maps of the Netherlands comparing the latest election results with those of 2006 reveal that the traditional red and green of Labour and the Christian Democrats have been largely supplanted by the yellow of local interest parties. Considering the national implications, NRC Handelsblad concludes that “the council elections have confirmed a trend: the electorate is adrift and is becoming ever more fragmented. A conventional government will be impossible to form.” It’s a view shared by de Volkskrant whose editorial notes that “it will be almost impossible to form a coalition government of less than four parties”. It goes on “the low turnout and victories for local parties cannot be interpreted as anything other than a serious lack of trust in national politics … this gives little cause for optimism.”

New study brings prince’s shadowy past to light
Several of today’s papers pick up on a new study that stirs up a royal controversy: the alleged Nazi sympathies of Queen Beatrix’s late father Prince Bernhard. NRC.next reports that writer Annejet van der Zijl defended her doctorate dissertation yesterday with the telling title Bernhard. A secret history. In it, she reveals that the German-born Prince’s signature appears on a membership card of a student association with Nazi sympathies which was banned by the Allies in 1945. The card also makes mention of his membership of the National Socialist party. The prince denied these associations, right up to his death in 2004: “I can state with my hand on the Bible: I was never a Nazi.”

AD also delves into what it calls Bernhard’s “shadowy past” and reveals that oddly enough the Prince did admit to having joined a section of the SS, a move he dismissed as purely practical so that he could go motorcycling at the weekends and continue his studies unhindered. The paper talks to historian and biographer Jan Kikkert who says: “Bernhard couldn’t care less for ideology. Or at least that’s what he claimed. It was just an excuse if you ask me.”

Trouw speaks to Annejet van der Zijl, the woman behind this latest study, who sees Prince Bernhard as part of the collective past which the Netherlands has yet to come to terms with. “We still do not really know what to do with him.” However, she seems to have most definitely made up her own mind: “Bernhard did enormous damage to the integrity of the monarchy. The current members of the royal house are still suffering as a result.” She also believes the German aristocrat’s “conquest” of Dutch princess Juliana was born of frustration at his mother’s loss of wealth and status at the time of the Weimar Republic: “He married out of love, though not so much love of his future bride as love of his mother.”

European family reunification ruling spells change for Dutch
De Volkskrant reports that a ruling by the European Court of Justice means that the Netherlands will have to abandon its income threshold for family reunification. At present an immigrant who wants to bring their spouse to the Netherlands has to earn at least 120 percent of the minimum wage. But the EU court has ruled that a member state cannot refuse reunification if the applicant can prove that he or she has “a stable regular income” which covers the “necessary expenses” of both partners.

The paper says the stricter Dutch measures have been in place since 2004 to curb the influx of “import brides” and improve their chances of integrating into Dutch society. Apparently thousands of applications are received each year. It talks to Professor Anton van Kalmthout of Tilburg University, who notes that “the Court’s rulings are binding” and will therefore have a direct effect on Dutch immigration policy. A representative of an association of lawyers who deal with asylum cases expects “busy times ahead” as clients whose reunification applications have been turned down queue up to give it another try.

The hippest funeral trends: cycles and clowns
AD takes a look at the “latest, hippest funeral and cremation trends”, which go on show in the town of Breda this weekend. One eye-catching option is the “hearse cycle”: a bicycle which pulls the coffin along on a trailer. “A wonderful funeral option for people who loved cycling,” beams the saleswoman, adding reassuringly “the coffin is firmly attached to the trailer, so there’s no danger of an unfortunate incident. The mourners can form a funeral procession by cycling behind it.”

If that isn’t alternative enough for you, what about “the funeral clowns”, also referred to as “mime memoria”? Their aim is to offer the children “a little comfort during the service”. I can’t help feeling that giant shoes and red noses might be taking comfort a bit too far. To say nothing of honking horns and custard pies ….