Gisteren was Hans Bellstedt managing partner van ons Duitse partnerbureau Hans Bellstedt Public Affairs GmbH te gast op ons kantoor in Den Haag. Dit keer stonden de Nederlandse politieke en culturele verhoudingen centraal. Samen staan we staan klaar om Nederlandse belangen te behartigen in Duitsland en Duitse belangen in Nederland. En via ons netwerk van onafhankelijke public affairs bureaus United Government Affairs zijn we ook vertegenwoordigd in Brussel, Frankrijk, Italië, Polen en het Verenigd Koninkrijk.
Founder, Managing Partner at Hans Bellstedt Public Affairs GmbH; Author (see "Publications"); Co-Head of Free Democratic Party Local Section, Berlin-Oranienburger Tor
The #Netherlands are Germany’s trading partner #3 in the world! More than grateful therefore to have had the opportunity, in #TheHague, to dive deep into current NL politics with Ewald van Rooij, founder and Managing Partner of Lindblom public relations public affairs, our Dutch partner within the United Government Affairs network. Some key take aways from the exchange with Ewald and his brilliant team: 👉 The relatively new Dutch government, composed of PVV (Geert Wilders’ party), NSC (the New Social Contract), VVD (ex-PM Mark Rutte’s party) and BBB (farmers), remains an experiment, with the budget proposal for 2025 as the crucial hurdle to be taken. However, if the coalition fails to get the budget through parliament, new elections would most probably see Mr Wilders’ party as the winner again, if not turning out even stronger. 👉#Immigration dominates the domestic policy debate, with a special focus on migrants from #Morocco. While the government has failed to establish a state of emergency, several bills intended to tackle migration “stricter than ever” will be submitted to parliament shortly. 👉Like in Germany, the housing crisis adds to domestic tension and turmoil. The target of 100 000 new appartments to be built in one year will not be achieved, due to a lack of labour, material, but also complex tender procedures. 👉Drug-related crime (“Mocro mafia”) has been haunting our neighbor country for a couple of years now with the port of #Rotterdam being (mis-)used as central hub for cocain trafficking. As for #cannabis, the policy of tolerating (but not legalizing) it has led to ambivalent results and certainly not helped to fight organized crime. 👉Post-colonialism is a major issue in the Netherlands. While both King Willem-Alexander and ex-PM Mark Rutte have asked the affected countries or their successors for apologies, the debate “behind the comma”, e.g. about compensations to be paid, goes on. Little texts next to world-famous paintings at the (strikingly gorgeous) #Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam) or #Mauritshuis (The Hague), presenting wealthy 17th century-merchants, their fortunes but in some cases also their slaves, address the issue in a contextualizing, but rather “un-woke” manner (which is good). Looking forward to continue the exchange with our partners at Lindblom and our friends in the Netherlands!