AD leads with the news that an ANWB opinion poll is biased, as the two professors who put together the Dutch motoring association’s survey on the proposed pay-as-you-drive scheme are known to support the measure.

 

After dropping a bombshell on Friday by saying he would abide by the wishes of ANWB members, Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings had to reassure MPs yesterday that democracy was safe in their hands and hadn’t been handed over to the motoring association.

 

De Volkskrant reports that the minister nevertheless insisted that public support for the kilometre charge was essential to make it work. Green Left MP Kees Vendrik asks in that case why don’t the Christian Democrats support the introduction of referenda generally? Democrat 66 MP Boris van der Ham asked if perhaps the minister should have become head of the ANWB instead. The minister stuck to his guns, saying he had no illusions that the measure would be a success without the support of an organisation like the ANWB.

 

As a former Member of the European Parliament, Eurlings retorted, “I came back from Brussels to the Netherlands to sort out traffic congestion.” As far as the conservative VVD MP Charlie Aptroot is concerned he needn’t have bothered. Because if the VVD joins the coalition after the next election, the kilometre charge will be scrapped, he says. That should be good for more than a few votes.

Why would a tiny luxury sports car manufacturer in the Netherlands, which is losing money, want to take over a much larger Swedish car maker, also making losses. At a press conference Spyker CEO Victor Muller understands the scepticism which met his company’s last-minute bid to take over Saab, “These are abnormal times in the car industry in which unusual transactions take place.” In Trouw he admits under normal circumstances such a deal would never have been possible. De Volkskrant prints a photo of the bosses of Saab and Spyker proudly standing next to their vehicles.

 

Clearly Mr Muller, who took on Spyker in 2000, likes a challenge, but will two negatives make a positive? Spyker produces just 40 cars a year. At Saab 40,000 cars roll off the production line every year. Spyker is paying US firm General Motors, Saab’s mother company, 52.5 million euros for the Swedish firm. GM will also receive shares worth 231.5 million euros in the newly-merged company. But Saab hasn’t sold a car for profit for almost the last 25 years. For every car sold, GM loses 3,000 euros. Now Spyker take on those losses.

 

As Spyker doesn’t actually have enough money to keep itself going, the tiny Dutch car maker has applied for a huge loan from the European Investment Bank. Sweden is guaranteeing the loan on the understanding that the new firm will invest in more environmentally-friendly cars.

 

The news has been greeted enthusiastically in Sweden. Saab employs 3,500 people and just as many are involved in supplying the company. AD writes that for years Victor Muller has been criticised for failing to make the small Dutch sports car firm profitable. But now he has used the Spyker name to his advantage and has finally got the recognition he has been looking for.

 

Trouw reports that Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin plans to end the recognition of polygamous marriages. Polygamy is illegal in the Netherlands. However, these marriages are recognised if they are carried out in a country where the practice is allowed.

 

The minister wants to change the law so that any polygamous marriage which takes place after someone has applied for a residence permit will not be recognised by the Dutch authorities. Under the proposed legislation, if someone travels abroad to enter a polygamous marriage he can even be prosecuted on return.

 

Polygamous marriages dating from before the person in question came to the Netherlands will continue to be recognised. There are currently 1374 people in the Netherlands who are married to two or more partners. For them nothing changes.

 

There is one snag to the new legislation, if a marriage is not recognised then it is impossible to get divorced.

Today is the 65^th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi death camp Auschwitz. Nrc.next reports that anti-Semitism in the Netherlands is on the rise, partly as a result of last year’s Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. According to the Centre for Information and Documentation Israel, the figures have doubled, with 250 reports of anti-Semitism in 2009. “That is a lot considering the size of the Jewish community.” says Peter Rodriguez from the Anne Frank Foundation.

 

The paper describes how a 22-year-old was sworn at and beaten up in 2008. The case caused a commotion when it turned out that the police didn’t have time to take a statement from the young man. The fact that no-one was ever prosecuted has not improved feelings in the Jewish community. Jewish people say they are increasingly discriminated against. Rabbi Raphael Evers tells the paper “My mother says it is worse than during the Second World War.”

 

But there is hope. According to Trouw, children from Jewish secondary schools in Amsterdam are told to ask their grandparents for their stories about the Second World War. They are impressed when they see their own names on a wall commemorating those who were deported to Westerbork transit camp during the German occupation of the Netherlands. The same paper reveals that a Muslim school in Rotterdam has even adopted a war monument, the first ever Islamic school in the Netherlands to do so. The headmaster explains, “We tell the parents, without understanding Dutch history, you cannot live in this country.”

 

A comparison of European monarchies has revealed that the Dutch royal family is the second most expensive, behind the British. But according to de Volkskrant, the Dutch royals are slightly less expensive than they used to be. This is partly down to a bookkeeping trick thought up by former finance minister Gerrit Zalm as certain costs are not included. As a result of leaving out the costs of security, state visits and palace maintenance, the Oranges (as they are affectionately known) cost a mere 40 million euros a year, rather than 110 million.

 

The author of the comparison admits there is a problem with his work. The Spanish royals may look like a relative bargain at just nine million euros per year. However, this is just the King’s pocket money, all other bills are footed by the state. 

 

Meanwhile in AD, Soestdijk palace reports that visits to (the late queen mother) Queen Juliana’s residence have soared, partly thanks a bit of clever advertising during a popular TV series on her racy husband, the late Prince Bernhard. Seems like the royals continue to thrive on a bit of controversy.