TOIf the General Political Considerations had been a sporting competition, it would most likely have been like the Clasico almost a year ago. Remember? A storm in early autumn had washed away the reinforced concrete of the Johan Cruijff Arena. Technical director Sven Mislintat had made a mistake, coach Maurice Steijn had turned out to be the wrong man in the wrong place, Feyenoord had shown Ajax every corner of their stadium and the end of the standings was in sight. An institution that was admired by everyone was brought down in one summer.
So much for the parallels, though I would perhaps like to see more similarities than there are. In any case, the big difference is that there was relatively little at stake. Well, the survival of the pride of a football club, but certainly not of a country.
While Ajax ended up in a management crisis due to an unhealthy combination of arrogance, toxic masculinity, sexism and sporting failures, the Schoof cabinet is currently mainly fighting the monsters under its bed.
After Budget Day, the focus was mostly on the so-called “experienced asylum crisis”, you will probably have noticed that other issues that really deserve the label “crisis” were hardly discussed: the war in Europe, nitrogen, climate change, education, care, lack of exercise.
This last topic was briefly discussed. The coalition parties are keen to increase VAT on sports. After all, a non-existent asylum crisis has to be financed with something, right?
Call it fatalistic thinking
In this newspaper I read how amateur football keeps society together. “This has broadened my worldview,” says comedian Jan Beuving. “Without this club I would not have met large groups of society.”
But that is exactly what the Schoof cabinet wants to undermine further: to erode the bond until social segregation is complete and we can only unite in a common scapegoat. Call it fatalistic, but we are less far from such casual thinking than we should be.
The Schoof cabinet has put its hand on its heart and is open to closing the deficit in an alternative way. But even if that is successful, if the increase in VAT on sports is taken off the table, it will not prevent the Netherlands from deteriorating. If we look at the reports of the Dutch Sports Council, the situation has not changed for years, despite all kinds of well-intentioned initiatives.
Spreading manure by hand
Earlier this year, the Sports Council wrote that more than half of Dutch people do not meet the exercise guidelines and that this percentage has been increasing for years. If sports become more expensive, it will obviously be more difficult for the government to get the population to exercise.
The advice is to make exercise more a part of daily life. I’m thinking: no new escalators, abolishing shared scooters, doing aerobics during debate breaks, spreading manure by hand, pumping petrol yourself, banning electric bikes for everyone under fifty, forcing everyone to watch TV, etc. Netherlands on the move.
But this government won’t want to think about that, because it doesn’t disturb society enough. We’ll get fat and blame the other person for it.
Former hockey player Pepijn Keppel writes a weekly column in Trouw. Read his columns here.
