VVD has gotten a dramatic rise in popularity due to their visibility in the pandemic. In a way that saved their election odds as they were in hot waters prior to the pandemic. At some point they were at a little over 20 seats.



This post was edited by balrog66 on Mar 6 2021 04:39am

It's a similar story here in Germany. The CDU (Christian Democrats, mainstream center-right) had dropped to a shocking 26-27% in the polls, based on hemorrhaging voters to the Greens over climate policy and to the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, right-wing populists). Once covid hit, their polls shot up to 37-39% while the Greens and the AfD lost the swing voters they had won from the CDU over the previous 1.5 years. Meanwhile, their polls came back down to earth, they're now polling at around 33%, which is where they were in the 2017 general election.

Behold, the ballot for this year:

omg banana for scale. nice pic

Damn, that's a huge ballot for a national election. I only know comparably bloated ballots from our regional elections:




The instructions unironically read: "You have 70 votes. Each candidate can receive a maximum of 3 votes."

When I was younger, I sometimes had to "volunteer" for the counting of these monstrosities.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Mar 6 2021 08:42am

That banana is gonna rot soon

I vote rotting banana

Voted for banana

Latest points of discussion and debate pre-election:

-Some uproar about a TV show by our public broadcaster, aimed towards ~11yo kids (just finishing primary school/starting secondary school). In the show these kids get to ask naked people questions about their body. The Christian parties and PVV/FvD got their panties in a bunch and are calling it degeneracy. Personally I have zero problem with it, the format looks very respectful and safe. Parents gave their permission, it's not sexual in any way what so ever. The kids mostly ask questions about what people like and don't like about their bodies or what a tattoo means or where a scar came from. The idea behind the show is to make kids more acquainted with normal human bodies instead of airbrushed Instagram/porn bodies. Also it definitely feels like society has become more prude over time, it's time to move back into the other direction. Apparently kids are now showering with their underwear on because they don't dare to get naked around eachother, pretty worrying.

-Discussion about whether people who vaccinated/get tested negatively should get priority for things like concerts and events. Also how to implement that.

I'm surprised that the debate about how/who has to pay back the huge amounts of public debt which was amassed by the covid countermeasures isnt more salient. Imho, that's far and away the most pressing and consequential political decision to be made in the near future.