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8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

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6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well

31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

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Irritation over PvdA using poverty relief for PR

11 November 2008 - After the national PvdA suggested local branches to give the poor 50 euro as a way to promote the party, city council member Emre Ünver (PvdA) proposed a motion to that effect. Coalition party GroenLinks and opposition party SP are sceptic.

Earlier this year, the national government decided to make 50 million euro available for municipalities in order to give the poor a 50 euro year-end bonus. In Amsterdam, over 75,000 households qualify, according to an estimate by the Stimulansz consultancy.

Today, newspaper AD revealed that State Secretary Ahmed Aboutaleb and a number of MPs, all PvdA members, sent local party branches an e-mail: "You can promote this initiative locally as a PvdA initiative. In this way, the success will reflect on your local branch".

And so they did. Dozens of local newspapers have reported PvdA initiatives to give the poor a 50 euro bonus, duly noting that PvdA MPs Hans Spekman and Paul Tang had made this possible. In Amsterdam, the PvdA announced the bonus proposal at its website, also crediting Spekman and Tang, but local media seem to have ignored it.

In some cities, the PR stunt met with resistance. In Schouwen-Duivenland, GroenLinks voted against a PvdA motion. "As sympathetic as the proposal may sound, that PvdA motion is unnecessary", party leader Theo de Gelder said, claiming that the poor would have gotten the 50 euro anyway. The alderman did not deny this.

In Amsterdam, the SP voiced similar objections to Ünver's proposal, says council member Carlien Boelhouwer. She says it is ridiculous to locally 'plant a PvdA flag' on the bonus.

Judith Sargentini, party leader of coalition party GroenLinks, calls the PvdA PR stunt 'not very tasteful'. She says the 50 euro bonus amounts to charity and that Aboutaleb should raise the social minimum if he really wants to fight poverty.

Ünver's motion will be put to a vote in December. Despite their criticism, it seems unlikely that GroenLinks and SP will go as far as vote against it.

Image: Aboutaleb in election campaign in Osdorp (photo PvdA Amsterdam)

See also: Sinterklaasactie PvdA voor herhaling vatbaar (in Dutch)

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