The village
of Oranje has repeatedly been in the news in the past week. On Tuesday evening,
Secretary of State Dijkhoff visited the small community that has about 140
inhabitants, to let them know that in contrary to earlier agreements, another
700 refugees would be placed in the village. The same evening buses with
refugees arrived, which were initially blocked by upset residents. The car of
Dijkhoff himself was also blocked by one lady, who was pulled away by security
and fell down, which resulted in some dramatic
video footage.
Foto:
ANP
Eventually,
Dijkhoff left and the refugees made it to the camp, but the village
has become a symbol of the conflict between a government that is desperate
for places to house refugees, and municipalities that are having trouble
creating these. Both the VNG (Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten, Association
of Dutch municipalities) and Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland (Dutch refugeework) have
criticized the way this situation was handled. The VNG accused the parliament
of putting too much pressure on the relationship between different governments.
Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland called
for a greater vision in creating housing for refugees.
Secretary
of State Dijkhoff himself stated that he was also not happy with the solution
and the evening in general, but that he
had no other choice. He could also not guarantee that he would not be
forced to do something similar in the future.
Intentional
It was relatively quiet around the village of Oranje for a day or two, until today the Dutch Socialist Party brought it up again, saying in De Telegraaf that the liberal party has brought the refugees to Oranje intentionally to start a discussion. According to SP party leader Emile Roemer, Dijkhoff did have other options but did not use them because the situation in Oranje creates support for new, harsher measures. Proof for this, according to the SP, is how a fellow party member of Dijkhoff responded, namely by hinting that it was time for new measures.
It was relatively quiet around the village of Oranje for a day or two, until today the Dutch Socialist Party brought it up again, saying in De Telegraaf that the liberal party has brought the refugees to Oranje intentionally to start a discussion. According to SP party leader Emile Roemer, Dijkhoff did have other options but did not use them because the situation in Oranje creates support for new, harsher measures. Proof for this, according to the SP, is how a fellow party member of Dijkhoff responded, namely by hinting that it was time for new measures.
Elvis
By explaining the events on Tuesday as intentional, the SP tries to reframe the situation so people will perhaps not support new plans of the government concerning the housing of refugees. Furthermore, perhaps the SP also tries to frame the situation this way because it could make the liberal party look bad. Whether they succeeded? Dijkhoff himself said: ''Ik zal ook bekennen: Elvis leeft nog en zodra de moord op de Amerikaanse president John F. Kennedy is verjaard, zal ik die toegeven. Dat is eigenlijk alles wat ik er over wil zeggen'' (‘’I will confess: Elvis is alive and when the murder on John F. Kennedy has expired, I will admit that too. That is everything I want to say about it’’).
By explaining the events on Tuesday as intentional, the SP tries to reframe the situation so people will perhaps not support new plans of the government concerning the housing of refugees. Furthermore, perhaps the SP also tries to frame the situation this way because it could make the liberal party look bad. Whether they succeeded? Dijkhoff himself said: ''Ik zal ook bekennen: Elvis leeft nog en zodra de moord op de Amerikaanse president John F. Kennedy is verjaard, zal ik die toegeven. Dat is eigenlijk alles wat ik er over wil zeggen'' (‘’I will confess: Elvis is alive and when the murder on John F. Kennedy has expired, I will admit that too. That is everything I want to say about it’’).
What do you
think, is it useful to try and reframe the situation this way? Does the
explanation of the SP sound credible, or should they perhaps have said
something else about the situation in Oranje? And do you think this hurts the
position of the liberal party - did they respond well?
- Lotte van der Sijs
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ReplyDeleteI don't know that much about Dutch politics, but in my opinion the explanation of the SP does not sound that credible. Obviously, the situation in Oranje is quite complicated, but it does not help to solve the problem if one party accuses another party of some evil conspiracy (as the Telegraaf article states) that aims at convincing the public that harsher measures are needed in the refugee issue. Therefore, the reaction by Dijkhoff is understandable as it demonstrates how ridiculous the ''conspiracy-statement'' was. Actually, it is quite a good counterattack, but maybe not the most appropriate answer a politician can give.
ReplyDeleteI was about to write something on this topic in reference to framing as well when I remembered you already brought it up. The choice of Dijkhof to locate the refugees in Oranje was indeed a bit of a tricky move, especially because previously the government had promised not to locate more refugees at this location. However, with the increasing stream of refugees coming our way it can be said that all options had to be reconsidered, even at the location of oranje.
ReplyDeleteThat all said, I do think that the whole situation with Oranje not only led to framing by the SP, but maybe also by the journalists. After all, we do not know whether or not any other refugees were (re)located elsewhere throughout the day? The journalists might have specifically picked out this location themselves because of previous controversy. However, maybe this location was not the only location to which refugees were sent, making the whole story a bit more nuanced (and in that turn discrediting both the reasoning of the SP and the liberal party for only focussing on the situation that has been on the news). All in all, this case might then also be a good example of how journalists frame the public debate (in case other refugee locations were pointed out as well).
- Marc Dols