The main story on all front pages is the political crisis in The Hague. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has come under fierce attack from both the opposition and coalition partner PvdA (Labour Party) after an independent commission of experts on Tuesday published a report on its investigation into the cabinet decision to lend political support to the 2003 US led invasion of Iraq.

Its main conclusions are that the government’s support for the war in Iraq constituted a violation of international law and that the cabinet repeatedly failed to inform parliament about US requests for Dutch support and failed to pass on information provided by the intelligence services. The commission also blames the prime minister for failing to provide adequate leadership in the period leading up to the war.

In a statement on Tuesday, the prime minister on the one hand praised the commission for its “thorough investigation”, but on the other hand rejected its main conclusions. His decision to chose the offensive has turned an issue which everybody expected to fizzle out into a full-blown crisis. 

Reactions
Most of today’s papers focus on the angry reaction of coalition partner PvdA to the prime minister’s statements. The party was in the opposition in 2003 and strongly opposed to Dutch support for the war in Iraq. De Telegraaf screams “Iraq splits cabinet, PvdA angrily demanding new statement”. De Volkskrant, in a slightly smaller font agrees: “PvdA furious at Balkenende” and adds that “Prime minister again fails to react like a statesman”. AD says that “Balkenende puts PvdA on edge, Report on Iraq invasion unexpectedly explosive” and Trouw’s headline reads: “Anger about Balkenende reaction”.

De Telegraaf writes that PvdA party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Wouter Bos was “unpleasantly surprised” by the prime minister’s decision to reject the report’s main conclusions, and de Volkskrant quotes PvdA Chair Mariëtte Hamer as saying “Mr Balkenende statements to an excessive extent reflect his personal views and those of the then cabinet. They cannot be used as guidelines for the views of the current cabinet”.

In a commentary, AD writes that the cabinet is “hanging by a thread” and blames the prime minister for “not showing even a trace of self-criticism”. According to the paper, “The CDA and PvdA are totally fed up with each other. As the cabinet must soon take difficult decisions about the mission to Uruzgan and major budget cuts, the continued existence of this cabinet is clearly in danger”. And, according to the free newspaper Sp!ts, falling poll ratings may just give Labour the final push it needs to abandon this increasingly unpopular cabinet. The full cabinet is scheduled to meet later today (Wednesday) in emergency session.  

Additional incitement charges against Geert Wilders
De Volkskrant reports that the Public Prosecutors’ Office has brought additional charges against Geert Wilders, the leader of the populist Freedom Party. Last year, the Amsterdam court ruled that his statements regarding Muslims and Islam may constitute criminal offences and ordered the Public Prosecutors’ Office to prosecute Mr Wilders for incitement to hatred and discrimination against Muslims. The Public Prosecutors’ Office has now decided to add the charge of incitement to hatred against Moroccans and non-Western immigrants.

Haroon Raza, one of the lawyers who filed the original complaint against Mr Wilders, said he was “delighted” with the decision. “Mr Wilders is not just focussing on Muslims, but also on non-Western immigrants, in other words, people of colour”. The lawyer says the Public Prosecutors’ Office now stands a better chance to secure a conviction: “Mr Wilders insists he is attacking Islam, not Muslims, but ethnicity is always about people. So you can’t say: ‘I didn’t mean it like that’.”

Woman who saved Anne Frank’s diaries dies
Miep Gies, the woman who discovered and preserved Anne Frank’s diary after the Frank family had been arrested by the Nazi’s died at the age of 100 in Amsterdam on Monday. Miep Gies and her husband Jan provided food and information to the Frank family and four others. De Volkskrant writes that even though Miep Gies became an icon in many countries, “She always remained modest about her own role”. Time and again, Miep Gies said she was no hero, emphasising that what she had done for the Frank family was nothing special.
 

AD writes that Miep Gies initially hoped to the able to return the diary to Anne Frank herself. “After I found it, I did not read it because I did not want to invade Anne’s privacy. When it was published, I initially refused to read it. I did not want to feel the pain again. When I finally gave in to Otto Frank’s request to read it, I was unable to stop. Anne made my friends come back to life. I once again heard their voices, their laughter, their arguments.” After the death of her husband in 1993, Miep Gies led a secluded life, even though she continued to speak about the war at schools: “I am the last living witness. I have to keep telling people about those times. No one else can”.