The Netherlands and its manmade province Flevoland

The Netherlands a partially manmade country.

Holland in the early 19th century

A great part of The Netherlands lies below the sea level. To protect the land from inundation by seawater, the low lands are surrounded by dikes. The building of dikes is a very old practice. Pieces of reclaimed land surrounded by dikes are called polders. Creating a polder is called inpolderen. Vast areas were reclaimed from the sea during the 16th, 17th, and 18th century. In the early 19th century the map of Holland shows an inner sea, De Zuiderzee, see map.
The Zuiderzee had an open connection with the North Sea and was therefore a tidal water.

The Zuiderzee had a long coastline made up of very old dikes. The area was not well protected against storms and floods.
Reinforcing all the dikes along the Zuiderzee was considered but rejected because of the enormous investment and work it required.

Afsluitdijk

Dr. Lely, the minister of Waterstaat, found a solution, relatively simple and cheap: one dike, closing the connection between the North Sea and the Zuiderzee. The name of this dike is the Afsluitdijk. It was built between 1927 and 1932. The last gap was closed on the 28th of May 1932. The Zuiderzee changed into a tideless fresh water lake called the IJsselmeer, the water level of which could be controlled. The Afsluitdijk is 32 km long.

Noordoostpolder

The men of the Ministry of Waterstaat then turned their eyes on the IJsselmeer and the plan was to make it completely dry, not at once but in stages. The first stage was the inpoldering of the Noordoostpolder, situated in the north-east section of the IJsselmeer. Inpoldering began in 1936 and was completed in 1942. That was during WWII. Further inpoldering was suspended and only taken up in 1955. The rebuilding of Holland after the destruction of the war was priority number one, inpoldering could wait.

In 1955 the inpoldering of the Flevopolder started and was completed in 1968. The Flevopolder is completely surrounded by water and is in fact an island, the largest manmade island in the world.

Flevoland, a new, manmade province.

Province of Flevoland

On January the 1st, 1986 the Flevopolder and the Noordoostpolder were formed into to the 12th province of The Netherlands with its own arms and flag. This new province was an addition of 10% to the landmass of The Netherlands. Since then some towns were built, Lelystad is the capital of the province. Almere, Zeewolde, Dronten are towns built in the Flevopolder. Emmeloord in the Noordoostpolder was built before 1986.

Lelystad was the first, originally a group of houses for the dike workers, then built according to modern city planning principles. Its architectural beauty is a matter of opinion, some like it, others hate it.

Almere is designed as a dormitory suburb of Amsterdam. Gradually it is developing its own character.

Arms of Flevoland

Flevoland is designed a a large agricultural area.  Farms are still dominantly visible but the landscape is slowly changing into a multipurpose area for light industry, recreational use and a nature reserve.

The original plans for inpoldering of the entire IJsselmeer were abandoned, due to resistance by environmental pressure groups.

The flag of Flevoland

There are plans to create a great island in the North Sea, not far from the coast. It could house a satellite of Schiphol Airport and industries we don't want on the mainland.

The expected rise of the sea level will no doubt prompt the Ministry of Waterstaat to design plans on an ever grander scale.

But there is no reason for the United Kingdom to fear that Holland would gobble up the entire North Sea and so robbing the UK of its island status.

What is the Dutch Polder Model?

What is the Polder Model?

The term relates to the tendency of Dutch politicians to go for consensus. The origin of this expression has to do with the making and maintaining of polders. Polders are pieces of land reclaimed from the sea or lakes and surrounded by a dike. Making polders was already done in the middle ages. It required coordinated action of many people. Those early dike-builders organized themselves in Hoogheemraadschappen, specialized organizations with local governmental powers, thus creating an early form of democracy. The Hoogheemraadschappen were also responsible for the maintenance of the dikes. An area of adjacent polders could turn into an urban area. Landowners were obliged to contribute to the Hoogheemraadschappen (Still today I pay tax to the Hoogheemraadschap of the area in which I live). The threat of inundation was equal for all the inhabitants of the lower regions, regardless of their creed. So Protestants and Roman Catholics had to cooperate.

The Polder Model today.
The Netherlands has many political parties such as CDA (Christian Democrats), VVD (Liberal right wing party), PvdA (Social Democrats), D66 (Left wing Liberals), GroenLinks (Green party), SP (Socialist Party, former Maoists), PVV (the party of the famous or infamous Geert Wilders), SGP (Fundamentalist Christian party), PvdD (Party for the animals -would you believe!-).
I may have forgotten a few independent one-man parties but this sums it up pretty well.

As you can imagine, forming a government after the elections is a difficult job. With so many parties the likelyhood of one party winning an absolute majority is negligible. So two, three or even more parties have to negotiate to form a coalition. After WWII until a few years ago the coalitions were either  right wing coalitions or a left wing coalition. In this period the Christian Democrats were always part of a coalition government. They belonged to the ruling class as well as other main parties who in turn were part of the coalition. These people got to know each other well and in the old polder tradition tried to reach a compromise. The general population grew discontent about the arrogance of power and the uncontrolled influx of foreigners who seem to take over the inner cities and drive out the original inhabitants.

What changed the situation?

Pim Fortuyn in a pensive pose

The arrival of Pim Fortuyn in the political arena changed everything. Fortuyn, a flamboyant homosexual, became very popular because of his clear and eloquently expressed political message. He understood the people and they understood him. He was murdered on the 6th of May 2002 by an animal rights activist, just before the general elections. His newly formed party won a landslide victory and they had to be part of the new government. Fortuyn's followers, now a flock without shepherd made a complete mess of it.

Next came Geert Wilders, just as the old political establishment recovered from the shattering blow Fortuyn had hit them with. First Wilders shook them with the Islam issue, which they so far ignored but now with the elections of September 2012 in sight, Europe and the Euro will be put on the political agenda by Geert Wilders, much to the chagrin of the established parties who are all confessed Eurocrats.

The Netherlands, a republican kingdom

A bit of history.

Revolutionaries erecting the Tree of Freedom in 1795

The Netherlands, or Holland as I will call it from now for the sake of brevity, was in its early independent state a republic established in 1588 during a long and eventually a successful war with Spain. The war's objective was to gain independence from Spain. The republic was ruled by the Staten-Generaal (a ruling counsel), the executive power was laid in the hands of the Stadhouder, a hereditary title granted to the Prince of Orange. This situation lasted until 1795 when under the influence of the French Revolution and the influx of French troops, the Bataafsche Republiek was established. The Prince of Orange fled to England, only to return after the first defeat of Napoleon in 1813.

In the meantime however Holland became a kingdom for the first time in 1806 when Napoleon's brother Louis was made king. Louis was one of the best kings we ever had. He worked hard for the sole interest of his new country. In 1810 Louis was sacked by his brother Napoleon and Holland was incorporated in the Napoleonic empire.

King Willem I in 1813

In 1813 Napoleon was beaten and Holland was liberated. The victorious allies wanted a strong counterbalance on the northern borders of France and the joined Holland and Belgium together and established a new kingdom with the Prince of Orange as king. This kingdom did not last very long and in 1831 Holland and Belgium separated after a short war, resulting in two kingdoms: Belgium and Holland.

A republican kingdom.
King Willem I started as a more or less absolute ruler. The patrician class who had ruled Holland since 1588 until 1795 were not very happy with this state of affairs. Gradually they chiselled the power of the king and his descendants away until the king was reduced to a constitutional monarch in 1848. Then the power was back in the hands of the Patricians (Regenten), just as in the times of the Republic. In those times the Stadhouders (the ancestors of the 19th century kings) were a power to be reckoned with. Some of them were military geniuses and politically very competent.
So in 1848 the Regenten were at the wheel of the republic again although it was disguised as a kingdom with a king without the considerable powers of a Stadhouder.

The republican kingdom in 2012.

Beatrix as a young Queen

Holland is still a kingdom in appearance but it operates as a republic. Queen Beatrix is intelligent and efficient and wields a considerable influence behind the scenes. But she has no real formal power.The late Prince Claus, the husband of Queen Beatrix described the political reality aptly: "Holland is a republic with a hereditary head of state". 

Prince Claus was a man with a great understanding of the political situation, his description of Holland as a republic cannot easily be dismissed as the uttering of a dilettant.

Monarchical republics in 2012
There is a strange sort of similarity between Holland and France.
France is monarchical republic. The French president resembles in the glory of his office, a French king. The powers of the French president are comparable with those of an enlightened ruling king. The same could be said of an American president albeit that his powers are strictly monitored by the American political system.

My first post is a kind of promise

What do I promise?
I promise to write a column every day and post it here. I already have a daily column written in Dutch, you can see it here, if you can read Dutch you may like it. It has an increasing number of daily readers. My promise today concerns a daily column in English to be posted here.

What am I going to write about?
I only know that when I start writing a column. It happens every day when writing my Dutch column. I rise early, take a shower. While singing and splashing an idea pops up and then I start writing. Before breakfast my column is posted. Let's see if it works with a second column. I wonder, but..... I am committed.

See you tomorrow!