{"id":134,"date":"2005-06-04T08:23:04","date_gmt":"2005-06-04T11:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/?p=134"},"modified":"2005-06-05T20:25:54","modified_gmt":"2005-06-05T23:25:54","slug":"what-did-he-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/?p=134","title":{"rendered":"What did he say?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"dropcap\">T<\/span>here&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nu.nl\/news\/536295\/21\/Belgische_minister_laakt_Nederlandse_EU-campagne.html\">criticism on the Dutch government<\/a> for their campaign for the EU constitution. Earlier a Dutch referendum showed that the majority of voters did not support the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/world\/europe\/4601731.stm\">new EU constitution<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>The criticism comes from the Belgian minister of Foreign Affairs, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.diplomatie.be\/en\/FOD\/kareldegucht.asp\">Minister De Gucht<\/a>.  According to him, the Dutch government tried to play on the voters&#8217; emotions instead of actually  showing the advantages of the new constitution. He admits the Dutch voting pattern has been &#8216;unpredictable&#8217;, particularly considering the tumultuous Dutch elections and the popularity of Pim Fortuyn.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"quote\">&#8220;And then they (the Dutch) elect  Jan-Peter Balkenende: who&#8217;s a mix of Harry Potter and narrowmindedness,  a person without a trace of charisma.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>More Harry Potter action we need! I heartily agree. More of this please.\n<\/p>\n<p>As for the Dutch referendum: I have no words for the mixed bag of colourful parties that formed the &#8216;No Block&#8217; (extreem-left, extreem-right and conservative Christian parties). I find the pictures of cheering Dutch No voters silly. If there are new elections, the Dutch should start a new party that&#8217;s all about um&#8230; sentiments! The New Sentiments Party: the party that does away with tolerance!\n<\/p>\n<p><small>Update  06\/05\/05 20:25: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nu.nl\/news\/536467\/21\/Belgische_minister_biedt_Balkenende_excuus_aan.html\">Belgian minister apologizes for strong remarks (Dutch only)<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s criticism on the Dutch government for their campaign for the EU constitution. Earlier a Dutch referendum showed that the majority of voters did not support the new EU constitution. The criticism comes from the Belgian minister of Foreign Affairs, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/?p=134\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}