How right wing populists have transformed the Netherlands' humane crime policy.

[pampango]

Crime and punishment in the Netherlands

Under the pressure of right wing populism, the Netherlands have been transformed from a country that was a model of humane crime policy to one hung up on security and punishment. The offensive of the populist right has been so effective that even social democrats now repudiate their multiculturalist past and lament over their policy mistakes.

In 2000, intellectual Paul Scheffer published The Multicultural Drama, an essay which would prove to be a watershed in the public debate. Inspired by the conservative American concept of the ‘culture of poverty’, it warned against the impending doom of Dutch multiculturalism due to the rise of a Moroccan-Dutch ethnic underclass, which could only be contained through a new civilising offensive.

When right wing populism arrived on the electoral scene, it found the ground already prepared. Whereas before, the gradual shift towards a more conservative approach was consensual, with all parties moving towards the right, the populist right used law and order issues to launch a frontal attack on the left. It didn’t take long for a fully-fledged moral panic to develop which focused on Moroccan-Dutch urban youth and the problems they caused. Social democrats were singled out as the principle cause of mass immigration and held solely responsible for denying the problems of a multicultural society.

The appeal to exceptional powers, such as unlimited administrative detention and the deportation of criminal migrants - no matter whether they are first or second generation, and despite the fact that they all hold Dutch passports - figure prominently in the party programme and speeches, but remain legally unattainable. This in turn has resulted in right wing populist pleas for the Netherlands to withdraw from international human rights treaties.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/merijn-oudenampsen/crime-and-punishment-in-netherlands

What has happened in the Netherlands is sad. One hopes that the basic decency of their society comes back in time and they put their right wing populists in their place.