Universiteit Leiden

nl en

Arco Timmermans in HP de Tijd: Percentages are not always indicative for the social debate

The Social and Cultural Plan Bureau (SCP) published the report “The social state of the Netherlands”. In this research is it stated that there is no such thing as a political shift to the right. In view of the fact that the right wing is better represented in the House of Commons, this is a remarkable fact.

Arco Timmermans also thinks the SCP figures are a bit unexpected, but he explains these figures based on the low percentage of doubters. “There is some politicization in the Netherlands, and the people who are dissatisfied now have a platform. In the early nineties e-mail just came up, nowadays that is quite different. You can say that the percentage of people who complain about migrants has decreased, but the percentage that is still complaining uses much more verbal violence and gets this opportunity on social media. Thus percentages are not fully indicative for the social debate and for politics.”

Read the entire article here.

This website uses cookies.  More information.