It’s the day after the local council elections and the papers are bursting with results and analyses. De Volkskrant publishes a bar graph showing the Labour Party, the Christian Democrats and the conservative VVD almost neck and neck. Trouw illustrates the same point with the headline “Three parties almost equally big”. The Labour Party has made the biggest losses compared to its huge victory in the municipal elections four years ago, but party leader Wouter Bos is relieved that the losses are not even greater and are an improvement on last year’s European election result. The Labour Party is still the largest party in local politics.

De Telegraaf focuses on the disappointment of the Christian Democrats which has paid “a high price for the fall of the cabinet” as up until the coalition crisis the Christian Democrats appeared steady in the polls. The paper says the Labour Party has been rewarded for walking out of Jan Peter Balkenende’s fourth coalition.

The dissatisfaction with the established parties is probably best illustrated by the 25 percent of people who voted for local parties in municipalities where Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party was not on the voting slip.

The Freedom Party only fielded candidates in the cities of Almere and The Hague. In Almere the anti-Islam party won almost 25 percent of the vote, towering above the rest of the parties. Trouw quotes Almere Labour Party alderman Adri Duivesteijn as saying “The Freedom Party has won the maximum result with minimum effort.”

Freedom Party leader in Almere Raymond van Roon says: “We are going to work on the things that irritate people: law and order, public nuisance, urban degeneration, Islamisation, high taxation, poor health care and failing schools.” He forgot to mention the controversial proposal to ban headscarves in municipal buildings and institutions which receive subsidies.

In The Hague, the Freedom Party is the second largest party behind the Labour Party. Sietse Fritsma who headed the party’s election list in the Netherlands’ political capital said, “We are going to drive the establishment in The Hague mad.” I daresay they will.

Analysis for upcoming general election
Geert Wilders called the result “A launching pad for victory on 9 June.” De Volkskrant concludes that the upcoming general election could be a race between three horses, Bos, Balkenende and Wilders. With Wouter Bos and Geert Wilders on the up and Jan Peter Balkenende in a poor starting position.

Interestingly the conservative VVD does not appear to feature in this race, even though it is the third largest party. The paper writes: “After years of poor results in the polls, the party has returned to its 2006 level.”

In spite of the huge gains made by democrats D66 with its anti-Wilders rhetoric, De Volkskrant doubts whether the party will be able to hold on to its voters. A left-wing coalition appears to be out of the question as the Socialist Party under Agnes Kant’s leadership has lost the popularity it enjoyed under previous leader Jan Marijnissen. Trouw reports, however, that Green Left leader Femke Halsema “is ready to enter government” after the party’s good showing in the municipal elections.

The analyses reflect the general national character of what were meant to be local elections, a trend which was reinforced by the fall of the government just a week-and-a-half before the ballot. Nrc.next concludes that the Dutch electorate is more divided than it already was, making it even more difficult to form a coalition in after the general election in June.

Early kidney donation proposal criticised
A proposal to remove donor organs from patients who are dying before they are actually dead has been met with criticism. Trouw reports that both doctors and the Kidney Foundation find the idea “terrible”.

In medical journal Medisch Contact, published today, clinical ethicist Erwin Kompanje and medical researcher Yorick de Groot of Rotterdam’s Erasmus Medical Centre have proposed removing organs before death. They argue that half of the organs harvested are currently lost because of poor blood supply. Although they do admit, “It is a very controversial proposal, but with an eye on the chronic shortage we thought it should be talked about.”

AD writes that the quality of donor organs deteriorates quickly during death. And because fewer people are declared brain or clinically dead, more and more kidneys are actually coming from living donors, usually family members.

The Dutch doctors’ association KNMG thinks it is a terrible idea and says, “You can’t start discussing a rule which makes people trust doctors: that we only remove organs after death.”

Likewise, the Dutch Kidney Foundation says, even though 200 people die every year because there are no kidneys available, “you have to keep to your promises.” The proposal gives people the wrong idea that this rule, which is anchored in law, could change. The foundation is already receiving phone calls from people who are worried by the idea.

The authors of the proposal are unperturbed and say they are aware of the sensitivity surrounding the issue, and have very carefully worded their ideas. They say at best the new proposal could only be an option which people can consider when they are healthy.

Fake playboy pilot arrested
Over a hundred passengers on a Corendon flight to Ankara were delayed slightly yesterday, when Dutch police arrested a fake pilot at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport after a tip from the Swedish authorities. Click here for more on the story.

De Telegraaf enlightens its readers that the 41-year-old Swede was a playboy who jetted around the world and had a girlfriend in every city. Thomas S. (surname withheld due to Dutch legal regulations) describes himself as a flying photographer. On the internet he calls himself Thomaz, “I live in Milan, but the world is my workplace. As a sideline I fly, because that takes me to the most beautiful places.”

The low-budget Turkish airline was shocked to find out that man who had flown their planes for two years had falsified his pilot’s license. But Corendon Airlines was not the only organisation to be hoodwinked by the flying conman. Air Sweden and Alitalia subsidiary AirOne had also employed him during the last 14 years.

The Dutch Transport Inspectorate sees no reason to screen other pilots for false licences as it is such a unique and isolated case. At least they hope it is.

Lucky cow escapes slaughter
It’s the kind of story we like to read, a cow who escaped certain death at a slaughterhouse in the eastern Dutch town of Haaksbergen has been found a home, reports De Telegraaf. Cow number 2746 has been renamed Felius after a famous Dutch cow artist Marleen Felius. The new owner is a children’s book writer Bibi Dumon Tak, who won an award with her first book The Cow Book.

The writer admits when she offered to take in the cow she did not know how much it would cost, but luckily animal lovers came to her aid and donated the 1650 euros she needed.

Meanwhile Felius has been taken to a rest home for bovines. Lucky cow.