PillarisationPillarisation (from the verzuiling) is the vertical separation of citizens into groups by religion and associated political beliefs. These societies were (and in some areas, still are) divided into two or more groups known as pillars (Dutch: zuilen). The best-known examples of this have historically occurred in the Netherlands and Belgium. Each pillar may have its own social institutions and social organizations.
Party for FreedomThe Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV) is a nationalist, right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands. Founded in 2006 as the successor to Geert Wilders' one-man faction in the House of Representatives, it won nine seats in the 2006 general election making it the fifth-largest party in parliament. In the 2010 general election it won 24 seats, making it the third-largest party. At that time the PVV agreed to support the minority government led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte without having PVV ministers in the cabinet.
CuraçaoCuraçao (ˈkjʊərəsoʊ,_-saʊ,ˌkjʊərəˈsoʊ,-ˈsaʊ , , , or , kyːraːˈsʌu or kuːr-, Kòrsou ˈkɔrsɔu̯), officially the Country of Curaçao (Land Curaçao; Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast. It is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Together with Aruba and Bonaire, it forms the ABC islands. Collectively, Curaçao, Aruba, and other Dutch islands in the Caribbean are often called the Dutch Caribbean.
Dutch languageDutch (Nederlands ˈneːdərlɑnts), also known as Netherlandic or Netherlandish, is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. Afrikaans is a separate but somewhat mutually intelligible daughter language spoken, to some degree, by at least 16 million people, mainly in South Africa and Namibia, evolving from the Cape Dutch dialects of Southern Africa.
GroenLinksGroenLinks (ɣrunˈlɪŋks, GreenLeft) is a green political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and the Evangelical People's Party, which shared left-wing and progressive ideals and earlier co-operated in Regenboog-coalition for the 1989 European Parliament election. After disappointing results in the 1989 and 1994 general elections, the nascent party fared particularly well in the 1998 and 2002 elections.
