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| Marijnissen under fire from supporters |
4/4/2007 |
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3 April 2007
AMSTERDAM – Socialist Party SP leader Jan Marijnissen is under fire from part of the SP following his comments over the weekend that Labour PvdA state secretaries Ahmed Aboutaleb and Nebahat Albayrak would do well to relinquish their original nationalities. Both politicians are dual nationals.
This provoked hundreds of angry responses on his website. "You''re starting to sound like Wilders," wrote one woman who had read the interview with Marijnissen in the Telegraaf.
PvdA faction leader Jacques Tichelaar was also furious. Marijnissen "explained" his statements on his website on Sunday, but did not recant them in any way.
The SP faction does not think the party leader has misspoken. "The problem isn''t the interview, but how it was presented," said SP MP Kant, acting as faction leader at the moment since Marijnissen is abroad. "It makes it look as if Aboutaleb and Albayrak have to choose between their passports. But that isn''t it at all."
Kant pointed out that the SP has long had the same, complex standpoint on dual nationality: the party is against dual nationality, but leaves it to dual nationals themselves to decide whether or not to relinquish a passport.
A survey by Maurice de Hond shows that almost 90 percent of those who support the Freedom Party PVV, Christian democrat CDA and Liberal VVD think that Marijnissen was right in saying that the two state secretaries should give up their other nationality. Among SP voters 62 percent agree, and among PvdA voters only 35 percent.
Only 29 percent of those asked thought it was good that Marijnissen came out with his comments now, rather than during the recent debate on dual nationality in Parliament. The SP voters are also divided, 49 percent have no problem with the fact that he made statements on the issue now.
[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]
Subject: Dutch news
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