According to ezinereligion, in 2007, the Netherlands had a population of 16.4 million people and its economy was largely driven by manufacturing, agriculture and services. The country had strong ties with the European Union and other European countries but had limited diplomatic relations with the United States. In terms of politics, the Netherlands has a parliamentary system in place with a Prime Minister as head of state and government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The country also enjoyed good relations with its European neighbors, especially Belgium, Germany, France and Luxembourg.
Yearbook 2007
Netherlands. According to CountryAAH, Amsterdam is the capital city of Netherlands. The Netherlands was given a new coalition government in February following the parliamentary elections held in November 2006. This time, the Christian Democratic CDA, which was still the largest party, formed the government of the second, the Social Democratic Labor Party. The coalition also included the small Christian Union (CU). Christian Democrats leader Jan Peter Balkenende remained as prime minister.
One requirement for collaboration that the PvdA made was that around 30,000 asylum seekers would be granted residence permits. These were people who have been in the country since before 2001, when the immigration law was tightened. The amnesty, which was approved by Parliament in June, marked a marked change in price compared to the previous government, whose immigration minister Rita Verdonk advocated the expulsion of illegal immigrants.
- According to abbreviationfinder: NL is the 2-letter acronym for the country of Netherlands.
The waves of debate went high in May over the boundaries of so-called reality TV when a TV station planned to let a mortally ill woman on live broadcast choose one of three kidney-sick people to whom she would donate her kidneys. The Prime Minister criticized the program and demands were raised that it should be stopped. It was only at the time of broadcast that it became apparent that the whole thing was a scam, designed to bring to the attention of the problem of lack of organ donors.
After a marked death and other incidents involving tourists who injured themselves, the government decided to ban the sale of hallucinogenic so-called “magic” mushrooms. The sale of dried mushrooms was already illegal, but fresh mushrooms had hitherto turned big money in the drug liberal Netherlands.
In 2009, Geert Wilder’s right-wing radical PVV joined the European Parliament and became the second largest party in the Netherlands with 17%.
The coalition government collapsed in February 2010, when the Social Democrats erupted after disagreement over whether the Netherlands should continue to join the occupation force in Afghanistan. Otherwise, the government would have continued until 2011. At the beginning of February, NATO had asked the Netherlands to extend the country’s participation in the occupation, but the Social Democrats opposed it. All 2,000 soldiers are now expected to be drawn by the end of 2010.
The June 2010 parliamentary election was a stinging defeat for the incumbent Christian Democratic-dominated government. The CDA dropped from 41 seats to 21 and the party’s chairman, Jan Peter Balkenende, announced that he was resigning both as chairman and as prime minister. The biggest winner of the election was the Danish People’s Party’s sister party, the fascist and xenophobic VDD, led by Geert Wilders, who went ahead 15 seats from 9 to 24. Parliament’s two largest parties became the Liberal VDD with 31 seats and the Social Democracy PvdA with 30. The complicated government negotiations ended in September with the formation of a minority government consisting of the VVD and the PvdA with the fascist Freedom Party as a supporting party – the same parliamentary model as in Denmark. A lawsuit began against Wilders in October for his hate speech aimed at Muslims.
The Netherlands performed best within the EU during the global economic crisis. In March 2010, unemployment had reached only 4.1%, compared to 10.1% in the EU as a whole. Youth unemployment had reached 7.4% with the EU average of 20.6%. However, GDP fell by 4.3% in 2009.
In October 2010, the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved as a political entity. A number of referendums had been carried out in the Dutch colonies at the beginning of the decade and had ended with the large islands seeking independence, while the small ones – Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba – were seeking integration into the colonial power. After October 10 they were granted the status of Dutch municipalities.
Wilder’s PVV withdrew as a support party for the government in April 2012. That same year, 6 of its MPs left the party in protest of Wilder’s authoritarian leadership practices. It was officers and police who left the party, so they were already used to authoritarian leadership structures.
The farewell of the PVV meant that the Rutte government fell and a new parliamentary election was held in September 2012. The voters this time punished Wilder’s PVV, which went down 5.3% to 10.1%. In contrast, the government party VVD rose 6.1% to 26.6, and the Social Democracy rose 5.2% to 24.8. Despite the progress of the VVD, the Christian Democrats next went back as much as the VVD went forward. In other words, the elections had not made the parliamentary situation much clearer. After two months of negotiations, the VVD and the Social Democracy formed a majority government.
Netherlands weather in March, April and May
Average daily temperatures between 9 ° C and 17 ° C can be expected over the next three months. In Maastricht, it gets warmest in May, while March is noticeably cooler.
Do you want to go on a beach holiday? The water temperatures are in March, April and May 7-12 ° C. So the weather is not suitable for swimming.
In March it rains depending on the region of 9 (Amsterdam) to 12 days (Maastricht), in April to 7 (Amsterdam) to 11 days (Maastricht) and May to 8 (Amsterdam) to 11 days (Maastricht).
In the period from March to May , the sun shines on average between 3 and 7 hours a day. The sunniest weather is in May in Amsterdam, but with less sun you have to get by in Maastricht in March.