List of Political Catch Phrases - Netherlands

Netherlands

• "At your service" – Pim Fortuyn, populist politician a few months before his assassination.
• "Congressen kopen geen straaljagers" (Party conferences don't purchase fighter jets) – Henk Vredeling, Defense minister Labour Party PvdA.
• "Fatsoen moet je doen" (Do Decency) – Jan-Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister, Christian-Democratic party.
• "In geouwehoer kun je niet wonen."(You can't live in hot air.) – Jan Schaefer, a socialist politician venting his opinion on Amsterdam's housing policies in the seventies.
• "Fascisme is een sfeer die hangt in een zaal vol linkse mensen." (Fascism is the atmosphere in a room full of left wing people ) Godfried Bomans
• "Het zijn wel ónze kut-Marokkanen." (But they are our fucking Moroccans) Job Cohen, mayor of Amsterdam, rephrasing Rob Oudkerk, an alderman in that city
• "Laten wij blij zijn! (...) Die VOC-mentaliteit, over grenzen heen kijken, dynamiek! Toch? (Let's just be happy! (...) That East India Company spirit, Dynamics! Right?) – Jan Peter Balkenende, prime minister of the Netherlands, during the 2007 budget debate in Parliament.
• "Gaat u maar rustig slapen." (Just go to sleep peacefully) – According to popular belief, prime minister Hendrikus Colijn said these words in a radio speech on the eve on the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. In reality, Colijn was not prime minister anymore by then. The phrase refers to a radio speech by Colijn in March 1936 in which he reacted on the remilitarization of the Rhineland. In this speech Colijn said: Ik verzoek den luisteraars dan ook om, wanneer zij straks hunne legersteden opzoeken, even rustig te gaan slapen als zij ook andere nachten doen. Er is voorshands geen enkele reden om ongerust te zijn. (That is why I would like to ask the listeners to sleep as tranquilly as they do on other nights, when they turn into their beds shortly. For the moment there is no reason whatsoever to be alarmed)
• "Willen we naar de Dam? Dan gáán we naar de Dam!" (If we want to Dam Square? Then we will!) – trade union leader Herman Bode during a trade union manifestation on 4 March 1980.
• "Mevrouwtje, ga lekker naar huis, koken, veel beter" ("Little lady, just go home, do the cooking. Much better.") – Pim Fortuyn, telling well-known reporter Wouke van Scherrenburg to stop asking him about being a "bad loser for refusing to answer" the night before his father's funeral.