Victory for Eurosceptics as Dutch reject EU-Ukraine deal in referendum

From the Daily Telegraph

It seems the referendum forced on the Dutch government by a widely supported petition has put the cat among the pigeons.
Holland currently holds the EU presidency and the ruling party was in favour of EU expansion to include the Ukraine.

Although they are terming the result as advisory, rather than binding, and despite the low turnout of 32% ish it seems there is little room for the government to wriggle out of this with 61% of voters rejecting the proposal.

Could this be the first salvo in the fight to dismantle the EU? Holland has a growing anti EU sentiment, and with the UK referendum looming this would seem to add a little more fuel to the fire of what will happen over the next few months.

Personally, I want the UK out of the EU and have done for years, so I see this as good news, at the very least, it will cause some of those remote figures in Brussels and Strasburg to question the relationship between the EU and the people who pay for it. At best it will give a little confidence to the leavers who are sitting on the fence through project fear.

I don't have an opinion on the result or uk exit or what not, but...

"The results show that people really don't want Ukraine to come nearer to the EU. So we must do something about it," he said.

No the result shows 70% of your country does not give a # about its future, it's country or the politicians that campaigned for one side or the other.

Is that democracy? Any well organized minory can control and impose anything to the majority, let's face it, it's not like the majority cares...

When you get a government imposing scientology or anything crazier under death penalty don't complain, you are the one that allowed it by no voting

rant over

a reply to: Indigent
Well, 60 % of the people who cared enough to vote anyway


I think the low turnout is indicative of the dislocation between the EU and the people now.


I bet there will be a bigger turnout in a referendum about leaving the EU altogether...

The taste of victory in the morning.

Second time they asked me to vote on eu related issues. In 2005 a no vote. And now again a no vote.



Also, anti eu sentiment is not growing. Roughly same results in 2005 when we were asked to vote about an eu constitution.

People are starting to see in the last 16 years how
the eu really works. Sneaky and a lot of smoke an mirrors.

The yes side in this referendum actually campaigned for people NOT vote because they knew they could not win.

The percentage of voters would have been higher without political madness such as far less polling stations than normal, other polling stations were not open the full day.

However, despite that, still more than 32 percent voted after waiting in line for quite some time.
A massive 'NO' as predicted, Well done!

a reply to: SprocketUK

Victory for Eurosceptics as Dutch reject EU-Ukraine deal in referendum

From the other side of the world; I reckon that's a funtastic result.

Scratch 'victory for eurosceptics', after the debate yesterday one thing is quite clear, democracy is dead!

The EU-Ukraine deal is already ratified by 27 EU countries which includes the UK, the Dutch government will either be in crisis somewhere in the coming weeks, or after the british referendum on Jun 23, the Dutch government will simply ratify the deal, despite the 61 percent votes against it.

They want to wait till after the british referendum on leaving the EU before they continue with the EU-Ukraine deal.