With a bit of a delay - I know, I’m a lazy bastard - but still, as I promised; the full edition of my short Skype-interview with aspiring MEP Marietje Schaake. Last Saturday in her party’s (D66)congress she was elected to the third position on the election list. A D66-enthusiast I met at the e-café a week before - see my post about the get-together - posted this at 3 PM:
@mkampschreur #D66 verkiezing EP lijst “voor het eerst dat D66 stemadvies heeft opgevolgd” dat betekent gerben jan gerbrandy op 2 en @marietjed66 op 3! 3:01 PM Mar 7th from web
Meaning “the party had, for the first time ever, adopted the proposed election list and put ms. Schaake third.” (Anyone who still can’t read the lines because of the @’s and #’s: GET YOUR BUMS ON TWITTER!! it’s fun and you might just find your MEPs on there any time soon now..)
The ranking clearly was cause for some celebration, seeing ms. Schaake’s next late-night tweet:
Just got home after D66 congress and a little after party! What a day, officially elected in 3rd position EP list! Hooray! Thanks!1:34 AM Mar 8th from web
A couple days earlier, as mentioned, she took some time to talk to me. The first thing I asked her, was: Why do you want to run?
http://www.vimeo.com/3549420
Ah yes, “Be the change you want to see”, a nice bit of Gandhi - or is it Obama that inspired this feeling in ms. Schaake? For example here… Oh, pay special attention to the old fella being all happy with his kids @0:41 - brilliant..!
But joking aside, ms. Schaake makes a fair point. The Netherlands has been changing radically in the last few years, not always for the best. I’m anxiously awaiting the European campaign of mr. Geert Wilders, sincerely hoping it won’t be as xenophobic and playing-on-fears as a lot of his national politicking has been. Even though mobility and travel are essential in Europe, I hate to see people leaving their home country because they no longer feel at home there.
Secondly, I asked ms. Schaake: What will be the most important issue for you in the EP, if you’re elected?
Taking responsibility vis-a-vis the next generation. I.e. knowledge management, actually an important opportunity offered by the economic situation to invest.
http://www.vimeo.com/3550158
Interesting stuff.. I’ll try to get another response as to how exactly she sees this “opportunity for the knowledge economy” in these dire economic times - already over here our education minister is actually talking about greatly increasing tuition fees for university…
Lastly, I inquired on what campaigning plans ms. Schaake had made.
http://www.vimeo.com/3550038
Well, whad’ya know! Marietje Schaake is actually very much a th!nker herself! So, if you have any questions, suggestions or otherwise, you can find her website at marietjeschaake.com, or send her an e-mail at marietje@marietjeschaake.com .
Twitter sidestep
Interestingly, in the same weekend of the D66-congress, Dutch political party GroenLinks (Green Party) had its congress, and a modest Twitter-catfight ensued between several tweeps over whose speeches and congresses were best.. Ah, it takes me right back to those romantic third-grade fisticuffs in the schoolyard.
But, even though the amount of people that has taken notice of this crossing of the swords, it does indicate one thing: Twitter is becoming mainstream among Dutch Europoliticians in rapid fashion! I’ll be monitoring the goings-about of our political representatives on Twitter closely…
(14 votes, average: 4.14 out of 5)
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Concerning Wilders: he may not have a true programme nor candidates yet, he has announced on that he would like to see Bulgaria and Romania leave the EU, and he wants the Dutch money that went to Brussels back. And of course Turkey may never ever ever ever join become a Member.
Such a visionary.
http://bale-blog-ia.blogspot.com/2009/03/m-k-gandhi-gone-oncetwice.html