Many of the papers report on the Swiss anti-minaret referendum. A surprising 57  percent voted for a ban on minarets, reports de Volkskrant. The initiative for the referendum was taken by two right-wing populist parties: the Swiss People’s Party and the Federal Democratic Union. The Swiss Greens hope that the ban will be prevented by the European Human Rights Convention which protects the freedom of religion.
 

AD reports that Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders called the result “fantastic news” and “a breakthrough as it is the first time a European country has spoken out against Islamisation”. He plans to ask for a similar referendum in the Netherlands. “The Netherlands has lots of mosques. Dutch people should have the right to say what they think about it. I think the result here will be the same as in Switzerland.”

There are just four minarets in Switzerland, where 400,000 Muslims live among a population of 7.7 million. The Swiss government is disappointed by the result but says it will respect it.

Minister wants toddlers to go to school
In an interview with AD, Deputy Education Minister Sharon Dijksma says she wants toddlers to attend primary school. This way learning difficulties can be picked up early on. Of course it would be on a purely voluntary basis.

Dozens of schools have been given the go-ahead to experiment with pre-school classes. As of 2015, the head teachers of these “schools of the future” will manage both education and child care.

The deputy minister also wants sports club trainers to come into the schools to give sports training, so that parents no longer have the burden of picking their children up from school and taking them to sports clubs. In the future, education, child care and sport will be brought together in one location.

However, there is no extra money for these plans. But the minister is convinced that it is possible to organise things differently.

Prince Bernhard comes into more controversy
Prince Bernhard, the late father of Queen Beatrix, is the subject of much controversy in the Netherlands. De Volkskrant reports that there have been rumours for several years that the Prince planned a coup in the young republic of Indonesia in 1950. Now journalist Jort Kelder and historian Harry Veenendaal have published a book on the subject which draws the conclusion that the Prince was involved in an attempt to gather arms and commit a coup d’état in the former Dutch colony. They say, “You cannot rule out that the Prince was involved. His aim was to become viceroy of Indonesia.”

The paper writes that the news is shocking, but can be added to the pile of accusations that cannot be proven. Other authors using the same sources in the past had drawn a different conclusion. The two authors claim that “Up to now the facts have been swept under a thick palace carpet by the official court biographers.” They want to start a discussion on the subject. Well they will certainly have the opportunity as they have been invited to talk about the book in at least three current affairs programmes on Dutch television this evening.

Police chiefs exposed in expenses scandal
There is a new expenses scandal. This time it is not the politicians caught being greedy but police chiefs. Trouw writes that although many police chiefs had fixed expenses for thousands of euros, many of them declared their expenses on top. When the television programme RTL Nieuws asked to see the expenses of 25 regional corps, it turned out that 16 declared extra expenses for things like dinners and renting tuxedos. Some police chiefs were even given compensation for the cost of second homes after moving to a new region.

Generally the salary of a police chief depends of the size of the region where he or she works. But the television station found that one interim police chief in the relatively small region of Twente earned almost as much as the police chief of Amsterdam which is much bigger. The Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst says she is “unpleasantly surprised by the news and will speak to the police chiefs.”

Parliamentary parties point to the huge cuts looming over the police force. Christian Democrat MP Coskun Cöruz says, “The minister has to get to the bottom of this, in particular because we were confronted by huge bonuses in the police force last year. Back then they promised improvements.” Parliament wants the expenses paid back and new deals to be made with the police chiefs.

Fair Trade chocolate letter campaign pays off
It is the festive season in the Netherlands and a “Green Saint” campaign by Oxfam Novib to encourage people to only buy fair trade chocolate looks like it is paying off. The Dutch traditionally give each other a chocolate letter, and other presents on the eve of Saint Nicolas’ Day on  5 December. This year, Oxfam Novib is using an aggressive advertising campaign to put pressure on shops to only stock fair trade chocolate letters.

The name and shame campaign singles out which companies have and which have not stocked fair trade chocolate letters. NRC.next reports that a number of companies have announced they will soon be selling fair trade chocolate, but not because of the Green Saint campaign. The chain stores which plan to stock them in the future, say they were already working on the issue before the campaign.

They also complain that Oxfam Novib is creating the impression that all other chocolate is produced using child labour or environmentally unfriendly methods, which they dispute. At the same time they argue that not enough fair trade cacao is being produced. Part of the problem is that the companies are dealing with small farmers and it takes time to train them on environmentally friendly methods and social working conditions.

A spokesperson for Oxfam Novib says “It’s a vicious circle, companies have been telling us for years that are working on the problem. But we want to see real commitment.” Anyway its up to the consumers now to vote with their feet.