Next week is the 2021 Dutch general election to elect members of the Dutch House of Representatives. The election is officially scheduled for Wednesday, 17 March, however due to the pandemic you are also allowed to vote on 15 and 16 March.
I say “you” because I can’t vote – you need to be a Dutch citizen to do so. That’s fine, though. I am allowed to vote in the municipal elections (and curiously, the local water board elections). For the municipal elections the eligibility is simpler: as a non-EU citizen I need to be registered in the municipality and live in the Netherlands for five uninterrupted years.
I will admit that since I cannot vote in the upcoming elections I have not paid much attention to Dutch politics, although I did do my research before the municipality elections I voted in a few years back.
The Netherlands is full of advertisements like this: a huge board that shows all (most?) of the eligible parties for the upcoming election. As you can see some parties prefer to show the party leader (the first few squares) whereas other squares rely more on text or slogans.
And me being me, I did make sure to get a shot of tram 16 in the background. This was in the city centre. Behind the tram is Primark (English Wikipedia), an Irish “Fast fashion” retail store. I have bought a few things there over the years, but you can see the difference in quality because everything is so cheap. Although I did find one of my favorite Christmas decorations there a few years back. That was definitely a good purchase!
Life in the Hague 