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Ex-Maoist Socialist Party backs “herd immunity,” austerity in Dutch elections
Right-wing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is reopening schools as COVID-19 surges in Europe, after a decade of leading governments of austerity and war. Rutte’s Freedom and Democracy Party (VVD) has nevertheless dominated Dutch elections, which end today, thanks to the reactionary policies of the middle-class parties that the bourgeoisie has passed off as the “left.” This includes prominently the ex-Maoist Socialist Party (SP) of the Netherlands.
Rutte rejected even the limited lockdowns adopted in other European countries and only this year imposed a curfew, forcing non-essential workers to stay on the job throughout the pandemic. As a result, over 1.1 million people have contracted the virus and over 16,000 have died in a country of only 17.3 million. The SP made clear its support for this general policy in a recent election interview with SP parliamentary leader Lilian Marijnissen, where she
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides have “completely failed” in the way they handled the COVID-19 vaccine contracts with the pharmaceutical industry, MEP Dimitris Papadimoulis has said.