They have just had elections, and the party (VVD: The People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy) that is the strongest critic of their smoking ban has now officially captured the most seats of any party in their parliament!
Meanwhile, the party seen as the chief supporters/engineers of the ban, the Christian Democrats got DESTROYED!? They went from holding 41 seats down to 21 seats!
According to Wiel, “It’s practically certain now that the blanket smoking ban (though DSR’s were allowed) will be amended so that small pubs can allow smoking again. The small pubs have been fighting the smoking ban because they are not able to install DSRs because of size or financial reasons, leaving them at a competitive disadvantage to the bigger bars.”
A side note: As you’ll read in the linked article below, heavy rains caused the lowest voter turnout in years: just 74% of eligible voters voted.? Heh… when was the last time you saw an American election that ever managed to get 74% of eligible voters to the polls?
