Press Review Tuesday 26 January 2010

Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings’ remark that the introduction of the pay-as-you-drive tax would depend on the level of support among the membership of the ANWB – The Dutch Automobile Association – is still being hotly debated in the Dutch media.

De Telegraaf, traditionally the champion of motorists, has devoted most of its front page to what it calls “A resounding NO” to the pay-as-you-drive tax. The paper held an online survey which reportedly shows that “More than 89 percent opposed to pay-as-you-drive tax”.

On nrc.next’s opinion page, three scientists argue that the ANWB survey – and by extension de Telegraaf’s survey - is undemocratic because it is very sensitive to fraud, the privacy of respondents is not guaranteed, and people who do not have access to the internet cannot respond at all.

Trouw has a background story by parliamentary history professor Carla van Baalen on what she calls “Eurlings’ remarkable twist on democracy”. The professor accuses the transport minister of “not playing by the rules of the game”. In her opinion, “A politician who does not listen to society is by definition wrong, but the same goes for a politician who allows society to decide”.

Free newspaper De Pers argues that “Eurlings is simply too honest”. The paper writes that the Transport Minister has consistently said that public support was essential. “So why all the commotion? Eurlings has made one big mistake: he was too honest”.

De Pers writes that all political parties will do just about anything to retain the support of major social organisations: the conservative VVD needs the support of employers organisations, the same way the Labour Party needs the trade union federations. “Politicians in The Hague are expected to keep up the illusion that parliament decides, while everybody knows that in many cases social organisations can make or break proposals.”

Bos wrong to sound his own trumpet

A different kind of saga, this one, but just as open-ended as the previous one. In Trouw, former ABN Amro Bank personnel director Pauline van der Meer Mohr says Finance Minister Wouter Bos wrongly takes pride in having cut the bonuses of top ABN Amro managers. As a result of extensive government support, ABN Amro is now effectively a state bank, giving the minister a substantial say in the bank’s salary policy. In a letter to parliament last week, the finance minister clearly took pride in the new salary policy he negotiated with ABN Amro, which includes drastic cuts to the bonuses of top managers.

However, Ms Van der Meer Mohr told a parliamentary commission investigating the causes of the financial crisis she was unimpressed with the minister’s negotiation skills. According to her, Mr Bos ‘forgot’ to mention that “The fixed salaries of the bank’s top managers, the basis for the calculation of bonuses, have increased substantially, and in some cases even doubled. The increases are so big, that ABN Amro is now in the international vanguard in terms of fixed salaries.” She said that the increases also have the knock-on effect of leading to higher pensions.

Ms Van der Meer Mohr, currently chair of the board of directors of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, says that intervention by a European watchdog will become inevitable should the banking sector fail to introduce some form of wage restraint soon.

Labour Party says farewell to 1990s policies

Staying with Wouter Bos, De Volkskrant has a report on a lecture that he gave as Labour Party leader in Amsterdam on Monday, in which he “Said farewell to the Labour policies of the 1990s.” In his lecture, the finance minister said he wanted to limit the role of the market in the public sector and more government intervention in the private domain. He argued that market watchdogs are inadequately equipped to safeguard citizen’s rights. “Perfect oversight is an illusion. It may be more effective to limit the reach of the market”.

In his lecture, Mr Bos took his leave of the so-called ‘Third Path’ of the 1990s, an attempt to renew social democracy by embracing the market. He said it “Corrected high expectations from the state”, but added that nearly all parties underestimated the dynamics of the market in combination with globalisation. “We went to sleep with a reasonably tamed free market, but woke up to an unleashed monster”.

FC Haarlem is no more

FC Haarlem, a former national champion (1946) and one of the nation’s oldest football clubs (founded in 1889), has gone bankrupt. De Volkskrant has dedicated a sizeable section of its front page – including a large photograph of a group of bewildered supporters - to a report guaranteed to strike dismay into the hearts of football lovers everywhere. “Haarlem just had to go down”, the paper writes. A two-million euro debt and the absence of any serious investors meant “there was no way of saving FC Haarlem”.

AD has a much more modest front-page report on the demise of FC Haarlem, including a – small – photograph (taken in 1982) of a very young Ruud Gullit in the blue-and-red Haarlem shirt. He says he regrets the bankruptcy of his former club but understands why it happened. “Let’s be honest, nobody came to watch anymore. So you have to ask yourself what the rationale of their existence was. You can’t live off your past and your memories.”

Bicycle lovers everywhere, rejoice...

De Volkskrant has a report on that quintessentially Dutch mode of transport known as the bicycle. Those among us who prefer to travel the world on two wheels will be happy to learn that sales of this most environmentally friendly of vehicles exceeded 1.3 million in 2009. Transport sector organisation RAI said turnover increased by four percent to nearly one billion euros. The average amount spent on a bike also increased by four percent. A RAI spokesperson said: “When people buy a bicycle, they prefer to buy a good one”.

The march of the electric bike continues. It currently has a market share of 10 percent. According to the RAI spokesperson, electric bikes are no longer the exclusive domain of the elderly because the e-bikes are: “getting more and more beautiful and less unwieldy. Nobody minds being seen on one of these bikes anymore, and when you have to ride into the wind, it’s nice to have an electrical motor to give you a helping hand.

Bookmark/Search this post with: