National identity? No thanks

The Scientific Institute of the Dutch Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) is urging the party “not to focus on national identity in the integration debate”, seeing as that identity is “transient and variable”, leads Trouw on its front page today. Hotly debated now in France, this issue “might well eclipse values of diversity and lead to social disintegration”, warns the conservative think tank. The CDA should also “set themselves apart from parties bent on arousing or capitalising on public sentiment born of [inter-ethnic] mistrust”. In a report presented on 16 December, which is supposed to come up with a CDA response to the mood of mistrust in the Dutch population, the institute also recalls that the Christian Democratic ideology is based on trust, not distrust. In an editorial, the Dutch daily applauds this exhortation to steer clear of “attempts to define national identity”, a temptation to which Dutch Labour and Liberals “have been giving in over the past few years”.