this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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theNetherlands
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I couldn’t even make a proper summary of everything he has done to fuck people over but the most important things he has done:
I know you're just summarising, but I don't think your first point gets across how deep the childcare benefits scandal goes. Thousands of parents had to pay tens of thousands of euros, often for no clear reason. The debt made them lose their posessions, jobs, relationships, and their own wellbeing. Their kids were taken out of their homes because parents in debt can't take care of their children. These people literally lost years of their lives because of one single action by some unknown employee of the tax authority with no justification needed.
The government is supposed to protect its citizens from itself, and the Dutch government failed at its most important task. The protections against arbitrary punishment that you have on paper were actively being bypassed. Requests for information resulted in completely blacked out documents. When it was brought to court (if you could somehow afford a lawyer), even the highest judges blindly trusted the information they got from the tax authority (even though vital information was illegally left out), rather than assuming innocence. The ombudsman seemed to care very little. The government also lied to parliament, and most MPs did not question it too much anyway because staying in the coalition is so much more important. And then the fourth power, the press, took over a decade to bring all of this to light, after ignoring several signs before. All branches of government failed here, and the foundation of rule of law was violated. Rutte, of course, knew about it, but oopsie he has no active memory of it.