Living in Freedom

This week, election fever continued to rise, with a lot of attention focused on the PVV, the Party for Freedom. A party that stands for freedom, but only for a select group of people. And because I am one of the many who are still undecided, I have been following politics more closely lately. Fortunately, there are also voting advice applications that can help.

When I look at the various issues, I sometimes agree with the PVDA, sometimes with the VVD or D66, and there are positions held by GroenLinks and even the Socialist Party or ChristenUnie that I share. So my ideal government is one made up of multiple parties, and that's going to be difficult this time around. On many issues, it's also a little more to the left or a little more to the right, and I don't lose any sleep over that.

However, there is one issue that divides the Netherlands considerably, and that is the influx of asylum seekers. I hear PVV supporters shouting: “They're not refugees, they're fortune seekers!” And I think, so what? Aren't we all searching for happiness? And isn't it precisely that search that connects us?

“Close the borders” is a solution I hear people talking about. At that moment, I think, who or what gives us the right to do that? Just because we happened to be born here, does that give us the right to exclude others? That is not a world I believe in. In my world, everyone has the freedom to seek happiness wherever they happen to be born.

This means that we must work to make the world in the Middle East and Africa safer so that fewer people are forced to flee, or help them by providing shelter in the region. In other words, literal development aid: helping with development, offering prospects, which is often something other than money.

Incidentally, money is not the problem at all. If large corporations simply paid their taxes properly, money would soon be pouring in. And yes, we might all end up paying a little more for our luxury items, but I think that's fine.

So to those who have been advised to vote for the PVV, I would say: think again about the question of what kind of freedom the PVV actually stands for. What's more, no one wants to govern with the PVV, so it's basically a wasted vote. My advice: choose another party from your list of voting advice, and your vote will at least be worth a little more than the average Twitter message.

And for all the other doubters: choose with your heart and seek your happiness... and enjoy living in a country where that freedom is a given for most people.