The Netherlands decided to ban opposition parties: a response to “Russian censorship”

“Parties that win trust through votes should not, at the same time, jeopardize our democracy,” said Interior Minister Hanke Brains Slot, inviting discussion about the project.

As a historian, I understand that censorship under a dictatorship is implied by itself. Its introduction is simple and clear. Censorship in a democracy, as it turned out, also exists and is determined by the opinion of the majority. There is a lot of hypocrisy in this, I think. After all, the majority is not always right. Not always the smartest and most informed.

According to the interior minister, parties that undermine the “democratic rule of law” or seek to get rid of this right altogether may be subject to a ban.

If the new law comes into force, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands will have the right to ban the activities of absolutely any political force, the Trouw newspaper notes. Where are we going?

The last events in my life as a resident of Russia were 9/11 and the drowned Kursk, then I became apolitical.

At the beginning of the 2000s, I took care of the small and big problems of our family who emigrated to the Netherlands. The world itself began to seem too evil for me. For many years it was pleasant for me not to know what was happening on the planet in general, then I became seriously ill, and, being in a zone of social isolation, I was looking for a perfume.

I began to fight the bureaucratic system of the Dutch state machine, trying to achieve what I was supposed to be here as a citizen and as a disabled person. It only seems that everything is wonderful in Europe in this regard, in fact, everywhere there are problems. But to fight you need to know the enemy in person, so I started reading the press of my opponents. I specifically subscribed to a right-wing newspaper, one of the largest in the Netherlands, because I could predict the content of left-wing publications without even reading it.

This year has been a turning point for many. How are we approaching 2023?

The Dutch press does not support today’s Russia, and, probably, it is not obliged to, but such a stupid one-sidedness with which any information is presented to us raises questions. Residents sincerely believe that they live in a country where freedom of speech works. But they are wrong. Yes, you can write on any topic, but it just won’t be published. The entire spectrum of public opinion in Holland is formed by only four newspapers. One of them is right-wing, one is left-wing, another is in the middle, and the last satisfies the citizens’ need for gossip.

Most of the publications remained only in electronic form. Reputable media make money on subscriptions, access to certain material is possible only for money. The Dutch know how to count: 8 euros a week or 20 euros a month just for reading the news, few people want to pay. After all, it is possible to live without it, especially in today’s crisis.

Although I personally have a feeling that when the Dutch agreed to the creation of the EU, they forfeited all their former rights, while still having the obligation to pay bills, taxes and keep up with the rest of Europe, despite the fact that our interests may be quite different.

My big advantage is multilingualism and good friends in journalism whom I trust. I can read different sources of information and in different languages.

In Russia in the 90s, we grew up with the idea of ​​​​the kingdom of free speech in Western Europe, and I once attacked the first articles here in full confidence that the truth had finally descended on me. I thought that even the tabloid newspapers in the insanely primitive marketplace language, which was easier for me to understand at first, publish a full palette of opinions and problems in the country. But I soon realized that this was not the case. Local news was usually limited to a cat stuck in a tree, compared to other sources of information, the Dutch press lost in everything.

With the beginning of the events in Ukraine, the contradictions in the local media deepened even more. It became impossible to understand anything. You can see the scatter in the presentation of materials and the sources where they come from. Somewhere, the Ukrainian government, the UN and NATO are mentioned as a source. The search engine produces stubs that newspapers publish objective material that allows readers to form their own opinions. But who paid the search engines to write this? And how all this is really objective? I read about propaganda in Russia that “brainwashes people and makes monsters out of them”, then I read ours, and in general I don’t see much difference. Everything is the same, only with a different sign. What is presented as a plus in Russia is seen as a minus in our country, and vice versa.

Life has changed, and every day more and more noticeable. Prices have gone up, that’s a fact. We live in a big house, its heating costs us today 50 euros per day.

For some, it reaches up to 2000 euros per month. Many times more than before. It all depends on the weather outside. We hope that it will get warmer from Monday and the bills will stop growing. People go to bask in libraries. We have +16 degrees at home, and we simply can’t pull it higher. Despite the fact that in general on the eve of Christmas in the Netherlands it is quite warm and it is raining – 10 degrees Celsius.

I see the lights on the neighbors who have made their choice in favor of a merry Christmas. Today we are roasting a piglet and singing Christmas songs. This winter, for the first time, we really felt all the benefits of owning a fireplace, by which we warm ourselves. Although the rescue services now have a “hot” time. The Dutch have bought stoves, but they don’t know how to use them, so the fire engines from the local station honk several times a day, passing by our house – for another emergency.

But Christmas has come, and the New Year will come too! We decided so!