The Heart of Politics

The Last Clause

Author's note at the end. Please read it, I know its long but it explains why I decided to talk about something like this in a supposedly fluffy romance fanfic.  I'm really going to be pouring my heart out down there. Trigger warnings: mentions of slavery, colonization, torture, rape

"Before we allow Mr. Klaver to come up and talk about GreonLinks Education bill, we'd like to see a progression of which parties would like to pass it. This is not for finality but rather to see where each party stands on the bill. Parties of course can opt out of giving their stance." Khadija announced.

"VVD what is your stance?"

"We'd like to refrain from disclosing." Sophie Hermans answered.

"CDA?"

"We would like to see it pass" Wopke Hoekstra smiled at Jesse encouragingly.

"The CU?"

"We are for it... at the moment." Gert-Jan Segers hesitated.

And that's how it went, some positive responses, negative responses, and a lot of undisclosed.

"For the D66?"

Jan Paternotte glanced at Rob, spoke into the microphone. "We are for the passing of the bill."

Sophie turned to look at Jan, then at Rob.

"Did you know?" Alesandra whispered harshly.

"Of course not" Sophie whispered back.

"Then what the hell are Paternotte and Jetten playing at?"

"The Hell if I know." Sophie watched Jesse Klaver approach the podium.

"I thought the whole point was to stop the education bill."

"It was. Hold on,  Alesandra do you even know why they wanted us to stop that bill?"

"Not really. Do you?" Alesandra watched Sophie's eyes bounce between Jan Paternotte and Jesse Klaver.

"Did you even read the education bill?"

"No. Do you seriously believe everyone here did?"

Sophie glared at Alesandra. The other woman moved away. Despite these members of parliament having the job of reading all the documents or at least summaries, most of them wouldn't do it. Sophie scowled, its not like she could force them, but she really did want to. Sophie bounced her leg underneath the table, and was ready to watch this meeting unfold.

Jesse organized his papers at the podium. He cleared his throat, and thought about the best way to approach this introduction to the newest debate topic.
"Thank you for your support on this bill, and I hope we can continue to have it. The main reason for this education reform is actually reconciliation. It's part of our last clause, and needed to have an entire other document dedicated to its outline. The Netherlands is a very beautiful country, with a lot of history. And we as a country have achieved so much—"

"Get to the point." Geert cut off.

"Mind your manners Wilders." Khadija hissed. Geert shrunk back into his seat.

"As I was saying. The Netherlands is a beautiful country, with beautiful culture. We are honourable, respected, kind people. But if we want to keep these values, we must have a more in-depth examination of our part in colonialism—"

"You want to teach the children of this country of how awful we are?!" Geert raised his voice

"We are not awful. The things we did in our past are awful. Are you really saying you'd like for those in our country to grow up ignorant?" Jesse challenged.