Tony Blair’s spirit damages Dutch social democrats

This satiric video from the USA says about itself:

Bush & Blair‘s Christmas Song – ‘Kill the World‘

29 January 2011

Mad U.S President George W. Bush and grinning Prime Minister Tony Blair sing their own rendition of Band Aid’s 1980’s hit ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’.

The Dutch PvdA political party is a social democratic party, damaged by Blairism. This caused them to become junior partners of the right-wing VVD party in the present Dutch coalition government.

In 2017, there will be a general election in the Netherlands. Before that, the PvdA will elect a party leader. There are, or were, four candidates.

Two of them are right-wingers: present party leader Diederik Samsom, and the Home Secretary in the coalition government Lodewijk Asscher.

Another candidate was until today Jacques Monasch MP. Monasch says that the Dutch government should respect the No vote of the Dutch electorate against the Ukraine-European Union treaty in this year’s referendum; like the PvdA had said they would. Now, the Blairite right wing of the PvdA says that the Dutch government should still sign the rejected treaty.

Yet another candidate was (is?) until today Gerard Bosman; PvdA chairman in Ridderkerk town, representing the left wing of the party; Linksom!

Today, the PvdA party executive has decided they don’t want Monasch’s and Bosman’s candidacies. Meaning only Samsom and Asscher would be on the ballot papers.

NOS TV reports (translated):

Candidate Gerard Bosman is totally bewildered by this and intends to appeal. “The battle for the party leadership has all the appearance of a theatre show between Diederik [Samsom] and Lodewijk [Asscher] who agree with each other 100 percent”, he says.

In Britain, the evil spirit of Tony Blair has been, partly, driven out of the Labour party, as Jeremy Corbyn won twice in party leader elections. Unfortunately, their Dutch sister party does not seem to be so far yet.

UPDATE: Monasch has resigned from the PvdA, becoming an independent MP; meaning that the VVD-PvdA coalition government now no longer has a majority in parliament.