The Christian Democrats have seen the number of seats it would win in an election drop to an all time low. Saturday’s party congress offered little hope of recovery. What the papers say.

Desperate
In a comment the Volkskrant analyses the desperate manoeuvrings of a cornered party. The way both camps in the Mauro case claimed to have solved the divisive question of his residency in the Netherlands was a case in point, the paper writes.
‘The CDA always wants to reconcile what is not reconcilable. This time it wanted to speak from the heart and apply the rules at the same time. Exactly the same as the Dutch people who want a strict immigration policy but cry compassion when the immigrant concerned has a nice face or turns out to be a talented football player.’
‘The drama is not just Mauro’s, it is the party’s’, and it has been ever since it turned over backwards to get into a government supported by Geert Wilders, the paper concludes.
Compassion
The irony of Saturday’s congress was that if it hadn’t been for the pesky reality of a young immigrant about to be deported, the party might have recovered some of its lost seats. Trouw quotes theologian Jacobine Geels, who is heading a commission to modernize the party and whose message centred on.. compassion.
‘The CDA has bring back morality into politics. It’s not about money or protocols but about what can be of value to a society.’ (..) ‘The party should be sensitive to what is vulnerable and and keep that sensitivity alive. In that way the party can distinguish itself from others.’
Future
When asked if this included sensitivity for Mauro’s plight, Geels answered: Mauro is the present. I am talking of the future and we still have a long way to go.’
Unite or else
The two CDA dissidents Kathleen Ferrier and Ad Koppejan meanwhile have been warned. At the end of the congress Maxime Verhagen as much as told them ‘unite or else’, several papers comment.
‘The thunderous applause is a clear signal to the parliamentary party to speak with one voice on Tuesday. What I have heard from Koppejan and Ferrier is that they want a discussion. You have heard what the CDA members ask of the parliamentary party. The applause that greeted my call for unity was heard by Koppejan and Ferrier as well.’