Worldlog October 2015

National parliamentary elections were held in Portugal on the 4th of October. And the Portuguese Party for the Animals won a seat in the national parliament! Over 74,000 Portuguese voted for PAN. As a result, André Silva was elected as a deputado. With this, PAN is the second political party worldwide which primarily stands for animals, nature and the environment and which has a political representative in the national parliament. This success has given a strong signal to traditional political parties: change is badly needed. The result illustrates the growth of a worldwide movement of people who want a political movement which does not focus on short-term human interest but on the planet and all its inhabitants instead.

In order to support our sister party I made a support video for PAN.

André Silva elected as MP of PAN

On Saturday the 10th of October, demonstrations were held in various big cities in Europe against the controversial free trade deal TTIP. The manifestation in Amsterdam was attended by more than 7,000 people, including many members of the Party for the Animals. It was wonderful to see that so many party members went to the manifestation to sound the alarm against TTIP. We sent a clear signal by doing so!

I had the opportunity to speak at the manifestation in my protest dress against TTIP. It was the dress I wore on Budget Day. I called for a referendum on TTIP and CETA, a similar free trade deal between the EU and Canada. TTIP and CETA threaten our democracy and give the power to multinationals and lobbyists. These free trade deals should not go ahead and certainly not without consulting the population first through a referendum.

TTIP demonstration in Amsterdam. For more photos click here.

Soon a meeting will be held by the European bank for Reconstruction and Development on the financing of one of the largest chicken factories in the world, Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) in the Ukraine with 85 million Euros. The Netherlands is a member of the Board of Governors of the European Bank. Dutch and European support to this chicken factory has already amounted to 500 million (!) Euros over the past years.

Our Minister of Finance has said that he does not object to spending 85 million Euros of European tax money on this mega-stable in the Ukraine. This is outrageous considering that the Lower House consented to our motion in 2012 to not finance any mega-stables abroad in any way. Last week, we tabled a new motion demanding that the Dutch government will not consent to this financing. The motion was passed with a majority.

Kind regards, Marianne