Ethnic Turkish woman candidate for Labour’s leadership
NRC Handelsblad was the only weekend newspaper not to lead with the royal grief for the country’s prince. The internal battle for the Labour Party leadership was given front page coverage and in-depth analysis.

“Integrity. The compliment was thrown so often at [resigned leader] Job Cohen, it had almost become a disqualification…If you want to succeed [in national politics] you have to have more rodentine – to survive both parliamentary debates with Wilders and the hovering media circus,” it observes in an opinion piece.

“And just as the women in the Labour Party were beginning to despair, a woman announced she would contest the party’s leadership: MP Nebahat Albayrak. She describes her strong points as her ‘ability to unite and take action,’” announces Trouw.

Is Albayrak, daughter of immigrant Turkish parents, not afraid her candidacy will give Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) the chance to write off Labour as the “immigrant party”? asks AD. “Let it happen. If I’m judged on where my cradle was rocked and who my parents are, then there’s something amiss in this country.”

Albayrak came under attack from Wilders for having joint nationality when she served as junior justice minister in the last government. “He’ll keep hitting me with it…I’ll simply call on him to finally talk content for a change.”

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