The federal initiative “against the construction of minarets” from a a group of right wing politicians, mainly from the Swiss People’s Party, the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland and the Egerkinger Komittee (“Egerkingen Committee”), was a successful populist referendum initiative in Switzerland to prevent the… Read More

A right wing party has officially requested a referendum to see if a majority of the Swiss are in favour of a new law to ban minarets. Since the Netherlands is known to house a large number of mosques of which some have minarets, the… Read More

In 2000 the Dutch city of Utrecht started with a new approach to deal with large number of homeless people and the problems it causes. The Utrecht city hall stimulated cooperation between all the different departments and organisations that are involved in helping and handling… Read More

The Swiss are discussing to introduce a logo so consumers can see if a food product is healthy or not. In the Netherlands a consumer logo to indicate that food is health with the name ‘choose consciously’ is already implemented a while ago. The background… Read More

Because of huge overpopulation and the rise of the number of suicides in French jails, a TV crew from TF1 news travels to the Netherlands and to Belgium to check out the jail systems in these two European states and how they work in practice…. Read More

Traditionally the consumer program Kassensturz from the Swiss public TV channel Schweizer Fernsehen broadcasts a compilation of international consumer reportages at the end of the year. This year Kassensturz broadcasts a Dutch reportage about the violent way Dutch window cleaners are defending their territories. For… Read More

The Dutch Taskforce Management Floods organises the ‘Water Test’, a national flood simulation exercise. The participants of the ‘Water Test’ are administrators, national-, regional- and local emergency services and the water board districts On the basis of the worst imaginable floods the involved departments and… Read More

Since November 2007 it is known that the far right wing politician Geert Wilders has a plan for an anti-Koran film. The film with the name Fitna will probably be launched on the internet before the first of April 2008. The Freedom Party (PVV) leader… Read More

After the local elections in 2006 Ahmed Marcouch became the first Muslim mayor of the Amsterdam district Slotervaart. The Social Democrat is a man of action, resolutely pushing through tough measures – something that doesn’t always win him friends. Most of Slotervaart’s 45,000 inhabitants have… Read More

In the Dutch year of the religious heritage, a new foundation devoted itself to save churches from demolition. In the upcoming 5 years around 1200 Dutch churches will go out of use because of the secularisation. Many of these churches have to be demolished to… Read More

The Anne Frank tree is the horse-chestnut tree in the inner garden behind the Anne Frank House in the centre of Amsterdam. A tree that featured in Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne Frank described the tree from the annex, the building… Read More

Just before the new EU treaty is signed, the Japanese NHK correspondent checks out why the Dutch government decided to skip a second referendum on the treaty. The Dutch opposition is busy to organise support for a new referendum, while the Minister of European Affairs… Read More