Hans van der Kamp

When I was young my parents badly wanted to move up in life, so they bought a house in the best part of town. Prestige is the root of success, they must have thought. Whenever the Dutch elections came around, our neighbors started taping VVD posters on the inside of their front windows. I remember my mother nagging my father that we had to put one up soon, before everybody would start to think that we were *against* the VVD.

‘But we are,’ my father replied.

My parents were Roman Catholics and voted CDA. (Christian Democrats)

The VVD once was a party defending the interests of the top middle and higher incomes in a time that socialism was sweeping our little nation. Today a free market economy attitude is common on all sides of the political specter, leaving the VVD politicians cut off from their own unique selling point and forcing the party in a position where they have to play the minds of the xenophobes and the racists to stay in shape. We all know the recipe. It seems to be as old as this continent.

With every election I am reminded of that look of sorrow in my mother’s eyes when our neighbors started showing off their VVD posters. I never had a window large enough to hold a VVD poster for her, so I am posting one here. I have designed it especially for this occasion. It is featuring Rita Verdonk, the only Dutch politician who gets away with immigration strategies that would be considered ‘inhumane’ in most other European countries.

She has repeatedly misled parliament, was forced to back down more than once – only to step forward again at the next occasion, because ‘the public’ seems to adore her.

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