Tougher justice: repeat offenders can expect no mercy and a call for correction camps in Amsterdam’s troubled neighbourhoods; the trade unions debate all night on new pension reforms; the ritual slaughter debate is not dead yet and research on aggressive meat-eaters was fabricated.

No place for soft judges: Freedom Party
The criminal justice system is going to get tougher on recidivists, headlines De Telegraaf. Offenders who commit a violent crime twice in a ten-year period will be subject to new minimum sentences. “The Freedom Party were the ones behind this legislation,” writes De Telegraaf.

Geert Wilders’ populist anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV) supports the minority conservative VVD-Christian Democrat coalition from parliamentary benches. Under the present system, the sentence imposed for a second crime is automatically half of the maximum term.

New legislation on minimum sentences for recidivists was part of the deal hammered out by Mr Wilders during government formation talks.

“The PVV is very pleased about the extension of minimum sentences,” says MP Lilian Helder. “The party felt judges were too soft on violent crime offenders,” writes De Telegraaf.

Ms Helder says arson and membership of a terrorist organisation have been added to the list of crimes which fall under the new law.

Correction camps for young criminals: Muslim councillor
A call for correction camps in an Amsterdam suburb swarming with young offenders comes from a different corner. Labour Party district councillor Achmed Baadoud was impressed with a model he saw in New York and wants to set up behavioural camps for youths fresh out of jail in own neighbourhood, writes Trouw.

“I want to set up a camp where ten to 20 offenders from 18 to 24 years old who have served time follow a strict regime. They would be made attend school or go to work, whatever they choose. At the moment, 75 percent of young offenders fall back into a criminal pattern once they’re out of jail. In New York, 75 percent of criminal youths who attend these correction camps show positive behaviour.”

The councillor wants judges to incorporate mandatory camp attendance into sentencing, so that youths get the chance to spend the last months of their prison term preparing for reintegration into society.

All night long: no agreement on ‘casino’ pension
News on the new retirement and pension agreements filled the papers in June. Today’s papers all give it coverage again, but only Trouw gives it a front-page spread.

“The trade union confederations were supposed to announce their position on the proposed raising of the retirement age yesterday. When, after six hours of negotiations, two mopeds arrived to deliver pizzas, it was clear that they’d be having a late night at the trade union’s headquarters,” writes de Volkskrant.

But, the paper explains, it was still unknown in the early hours when the papers went to print whether Agnes Jongerius, chairperson of the Dutch FNV confederation, would manage to bring the rowing unions together on the issue.

Ms Jongerius, who has already put her signature to the agreement - alongside that of Employment Minister Henk Kamp and the employers’ federation - has the support of several of the country’s 19 unions. “The largest union with 476,000 members, FNV Bondgenoten, is voicing the loudest opposition and exerting unrelenting pressure,” writes nrc.next.

“The plan was to link the pension fund to stock exchange markets, which FNV Bondgentoen derided as a ‘casino pension’,” explains AD. “[Ms Jongerius] has negotiated for two years and signed an agreement that is basically unacceptable for a large number of trade union members.”

This morning’s radio and TV news were able to announce that negotiations had broken down after 16 hours without an accord being reached. Henk van der Kolk, chairman of FNV Bondgenoten, stuck to his guns.

Un-anaesthetised slaughter is not dead yet
Another debate - that on ritual slaughter - is getting a new lease of life. On 28 June, the Dutch parliament passed a law proposed by the Animal Welfare Party, which has two seats in parliament, to ban ritual slaughter.

Emotions ran high among the Jewish and Muslim communities and the debate prompted an unusual partnership between the two groups. Now, they are hitting back, writes de Volkskrant. Rabbi Lody van de Kamp and chairman Ibrahim Wijbenga of the Islamic Burial Foundation (IBW) have founded a new Jewish-Muslim platform to stem the tide of “ever-increasing infringement of our religious freedom”.

In the lead-up to the parliamentary vote, no matter what scientific evidence Rabbi Van de Kamp produced showing that ritual slaughter was no more painful than stunned slaughter, he was met with the standard response: “We already have a report”.

The most ‘painful’ part of the debate leading up to the ban was the bad image created about ritual slaughter. “The Jewish and Muslim groups were portrayed as Mediaeval groups applying barbaric methods. Even if the ban is blocked, we have to repair that image,” says Mr Wijbenga.

Research to get your teeth into was fake
Nrc.next reports on another meaty image repair story. Last month journalist Margit Spaak published an item about meat-eaters being more anti-social and self-centred. “Eating meat brings out the worst in people,” Ms Spaak had written, citing three researchers.

It transpires that research allegedly carried out by a lecturer at Tilburg was bogus. Professor Roos Vonk at Nijmegen’s Radboud University, who had written an article on the research, backed up the claims made by her Tilburg colleague with enthusiasm.

The papers picked up on the story, though some were sceptical. De Volkskrant only referred to it in its cookery section. Ms Spaak herself had her doubts and added in her report that Ms Vonk was a member of the Animal Welfare Party. Nrc tells us the Nijmegen professor has posted an apology for the “error of mega dimension” on her website.