Eleven Cities Tour fever hits the Netherlands but the ice is too thin, and the director of the crèche in the centre of the Amsterdam child abuse case is interviewed. The Dutch Senate may be about to change, the Dutch are pessimistic as they go into 2011 and Amsterdam gets no reception - today’s papers.

Eleven Cities Tour fever
Three of today’s papers have front-page photographs relating to the burning question of whether conditions are right to hold the Eleven Cities Tour this year. The gruelling outdoor skating marathon, which takes in almost 200 kilometres of the frozen waterways (and 11 towns) in the northern province of Friesland, was last held in 1997.

“Not thick enough yet”, is the discouraging headline in the AD. While the whole of the Netherlands appears to be in the grip of Eleven Cities Tour fever, says the paper, a local ‘ice master’ - whose job it is to gauge whether conditions are good enough for the race to be held – remains coolly level-headed. He’s pictured kneeling on the ice, children playing on their skates behind him. He has a measuring pick in hand: “We need another three or four good nights of really freezing temperatures yet,” is his verdict.

Another ice master, pictured on the front page of De Telegraaf, is even more sombre and seems to be ruling out holding the marathon before the New Year. “The idea of an Eleven Cities Tour in a week’s time is too optimistic,” he announces.

The banner photo of de Volkskrant confirms the verdict. This time skaters are pictured passing an iced-in boat but, on the other side of the group, a patch of water can be seen ominously in amongst the ice. In some places in Friesland, we are told, the ice is indeed the regulation 12-centimetres thick, but elsewhere it’s far too thin for an Eleven Cities Tour.

Abuse crèche director interviewed
Turn the page of de Volkskrant and we’re treated to an interview with Albert Drent. He was forced to resign as director of an Amsterdam crèche after allegations that a child care worker had abused over 60 children there and elsewhere.  He is pictured sitting on the settee at home, scratching the cat – he looks exhausted. “I’ve now got to the point where I’ll say: I’m not taking on male child-care workers anymore.”

He explains that he’s usually a good judge of character but that the prime suspect in the case was simply too clever for him: he had no idea of what was going on. The man, “a very dominant, effeminate homosexual”, gave the director no chance to dismiss him. If Mr Drent had tried to get rid of him he would have had “the whole of the Amsterdam gay rights movement” down on him.

He tells the paper that he has never sexually abused a child: “Never, never, never have I touched children.” He is asked why in 1995 he was sacked from another crèche. “A small drop of vaginal discharge” was found on a “nine or ten-month-old girl”, he explains. He denies that he was dismissed, and says rather that his contract was just not renewed. “I was never questioned by the police. It was a supposition. Men are by definition suspect in child care.”

Is the Dutch Senate changing?
Although it chooses to lead on what to do for Christmas dinner, nrc.next also picks up on the near-defeat for the government in the Dutch Senate yesterday. Normally, nothing very striking goes on in the Upper House, says the paper. This time, there was. The government was forced to delay its imposition of a hike in the tax charged on theatre and concert tickets.

At the moment, the government does not have a majority in the Upper House, even with the support of the Freedom party (PVV) which gives it a small majority in the Lower House. The Christian Democrat leader of the Senate tells us that the “ground will fall from under” the present cabinet if it fails to win a majority in the Senate in provincial elections due in March.

He says the Senate has always been completely different from the Lower House, with senators saying what they really think regardless of party lines and not indulging in what he dismisses as “political games”. However, it will not stay that way, he feels, if the opposition remains in the majority after the elections. “Then, the behaviour will probably change,” he warns, painting a picture of opposition senators playing to the cameras and giving the government a rough time.

Are the Dutch pessimistic?
Protestant daily Trouw leads today on US President Obama’s double legislative success yesterday, but finds space on its front page to cover a Dutch survey which 1,274 people filled in at home. It indicates that the Dutch are pessimistic as they enter the new year. They expect society to become more selfish and materialistic, and see the gap between rich and poor growing yet wider and tensions between ethnic groups increasing.

“Dutch people are sombre because we are living in uncertain times,” says the director of the group that did the research. “At the same time, we saw an enormous desire for more positive things, for a better atmosphere,” he goes on. It seems people do think things will get better, but not for three or even five years. The paper says the findings contradict official Dutch research into how people feel. This consistently shows that the Dutch, while worried about the state of things abroad, tend to be satisfied with the way things are going at home.

Amsterdam town hall savings
Finally De Telegraaf tells us that the feel-good factor among Amsterdam civil servants is set to take a knock. Mayor Eberhard van der Laan is breaking with the tradition of having a New Year’s reception in the famous Concertgebouw hall. The paper tells us the annual bash costs an enormous 150,000 to 200,000 euros.

“Everyone is having to make savings, and that applies to us too,” says the mayor’s spokesman. And is the mayor’s New Year message, which he usually delivers at the reception, also going to go? “We’ll see if we can find another way of delivering it,” we’re told. The paper makes no comment on whether this particular saving should stay.