The Netherlands: Dutch Labour leader Samson seen as new PM and "would be every mothers favorite son in law"

Diederik Samson

Dutch Labour leader Diederik Samson handed out roses and promised a new Europe as he campaigned Saturday to achieve what seemed impossible just weeks ago: become the Netherlands' next prime minister.

"The Netherlands needs a party that understands that it's only with a properly functioning Europe that the Netherlands can function, only with a Europe that grows can the Netherlands have growth," Samson told voters on the canal-lined streets of Utrecht ahead of Wednesday's election.

Red-clad activists from Samson's centre-left Labour (PvdA) party and shoppers applauded the call to redefine the European Union's role.

Samson, has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the polls that has surprised voters and analysts in the eurozone's fifth largest economy.

With his broad grin and shaved head and wearing a shirt without a tie, Samson tells his followers to believe in "the strength of the Netherlands".

"We have to build the future, we have to build a more social Netherlands, it's still possible!" said the politician dubbed the "comeback-kid" of Dutch politics.

While the Dutch economy grew by 0.2 percent in the second quarter compared to the first, the country's Central Statistics Bureau warned that "the Netherlands still finds itself in a period of poor economic conditions."

Samson, 41, only took over the Labour party in March, a month before the ruling coalition led by the Liberal VVD collapsed.

He has risen steadily in the polls over the last two weeks and is now seriously being seen as a contender for the prime minister's post.

He has positioned his leftist party towards the centre to battle the sovereign debt crisis shaking the eurozone, arguing for targetted stimulus measures to kick-start growth. "Just making savings will not solve the crisis and investing without thinking will only make it worse," Samson said in Utrecht.

Instead, he offered a middle-of-the road alternative to austerity-driven VDD leader and current Prime Minister Mark Rutte on the one hand, and the hard-left Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer on the other.
Latest opinion polls suggest Samson's PvdA will win 32 seats in the 150-seat lower house, and the VDD 33.

Whichever party wins most votes gets the prime minister's job and the right to form a ruling coalition. On Saturday night, Dutch public broadcaster NOS, on its website, put both parties at 35 seats in their "political barometer". When voters were asked "who do you want to be prime minister if you can choose between right winger Mark Rutte and Diederik Samson?" 42 percent of respondents chose Rutte, while 47 percent chose Samson.

The party that wins Wednesday's elections will be in charge of forming a new coalition government in the 150-seat lower house, and a new prime minister is chosen from its ranks -- usually the party leader.

The intelligent and personable Diederik Samson who has served in parliament since 2003, and his ability to perform well on television should not have come as a surprise, as he has been a serial victor on celebrity television quiz programs. In 2005 and 2006 he won "The National News Quiz," in 2008 he won "The National IQ Test" and the same year he won "The Big History Quiz." His wife reportedly told him he had proved his point and should stop competing.

Samson may also be benefiting from what voters don't know about him. He studied Nuclear Physics at the prestigious Dutch Delft University. Is married and has two children. Before entering politics, he worked for Greenpeace, where he was arrested several times, though he does not have a criminal record. An elderly lady who watched him on TV said about Samson, "he would be every mothers favorite son in law".

EU-Digest